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IN THE MEDIA |
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euclid pays settlement to man who was stunned with taser
Plain Dealer, March 31, 2010
A ... man who was handcuffed and sitting on the ground when Tasered by a Euclid police officer has settled an excessive-force lawsuit against the officer. ... [The officer] tasered [the man] twice, each time in his right thigh. ...
Saks said [the officer] used the Taser like a cattle prod.
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Jury finds officer violated man’s civil rights
FOX8 NEWS, March 11, 2008
A birthday outing to see the Cleveland Indians take on the Minnesota Twins
in 2005 turned into a nightmare for Narlin Shadd. But the special education
teacher from Brooklyn Heights says a federal jury's verdict Friday brought some sense of justice.
The jury awarded Shadd $50,000 and determined that Cleveland Police Officer Alvin White had violated Shadd's civil rights. . . . The exchange of words ended with the officer punching Shadd twice more and forcefully removing him from the vehicle.
Shadd's wife and daughter pleaded with White and another officer to stop pulling up Shadd's paralyzed left arm to handcuff him.
. . . The Shadds say their courtroom victory is not about money.
"White should not be able to do this to any other person ever again," says Shadd's wife Mary Ellen Shadd.
"The many good officers have their reputation hurt when bad officers get away with misconduct, especially violence," says [attorney William] Saks. |
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Dying man blames poor care in prison
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH, February 15, 2004
CLEVELAND – Jimmie Sanders did his time. Now, he doesn’t have much time left . . . The tumor first had been detected eight months earlier as a suspicious, ghostly mass on an X-ray. But no one ever told – or treated – Inmate A 314111 at Madison Correctional Institution near London.
. . . William Saks, a Cleveland lawyer pressing Sanders’ legal claims, maintains [the prison’s doctor] had a primary-care physician’s responsibility to ensure his patient was fully informed and received care.
“Jimmie thought the system would work the way it was supposed to. [The prison’s doctor] had a duty to make the system work, and he did not fulfill that duty.”
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‘Frivolous’ suits aren’t the problem
Letters to the Editor, CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER, September 2, 1995
“. . . By exaggerating the significance of frivolous prisoner lawsuits, you play into the hands of those seeking to deflect the public’s attention from the system's substantial problems. Legal claims are the inevitable consequence of operating an underfunded prison system at double capacity.” –William M. Saks, Cleveland
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Search policy reaction mixed
Officials, public housing residents weigh change
COLUMBUS DISPATCH, April 11, 1994
. . . In a radio address Saturday, (President) Clinton called for leases in public housing to have clauses permitting warrantless searches.
. . . Bill Saks, a staff attorney in Cleveland for the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, said, “There is a complicated network of cases that specifically lay out what the Fourth Amendment [right of the people against unreasonable searches and seizures] allows.” Each case requires “some suspicion of wrongdoing.”
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Jail to recoup health-care costs
ASSOCIATED PRESS, September 25, 1993
Jails squeezed by budget crunches and climbing health-care costs are turning to their prisoners to share the burden.
Maj. Michael Sullivan, administrator of the Clark County Jail in Springfield, said that beginning Jan. 1, inmates would be required to pay a portion of their medical care.
. . . ACLU of Ohio lawyer Bill Saks said the government should pay for inmate medical care.
“When a defendant is in state custody, the state is responsible for all of his basic human needs, including all medical needs that are necessary,” said Saks. “They don’t have any control over their lives at that point.”
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Guilty assumption's costly, lasting effects
Letter to the Editor, CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER, November 28, 2010
Thank you for your excellent four-part series "Presumed guilty." Your thorough reporting has shown how easily a police officer's or prosecutor's mere hunch can be converted into indictment and, often, conviction. As you show, the hunches are often based primarily on a superficial connection to a criminal act, such as being in proximity to some contraband, or being the relative or landlord of an
offender.
Unfortunately, law enforcement officials do not appear to appreciate the impact of an erroneous prosecution. In most cases, the defendants lose wages - or their job - because of pretrial detention, court dates or the infamy of the charge. Nor are they compensated for jail time served, let alone for the anguish suffered because of fear of conviction and punishment.
Finally, the defendants' reputations are damaged even if the charges are dismissed or the defendant overcomes them at trial. This problem has recently grown because of the popularity of the Internet. It makes arrest records and media articles about criminal accusations permanently accessible to everyone, including potential employers.
Hopefully, your series will initiate reform of law enforcement so that criminal defendants are
presumed innocent, unless and until proven guilty, as the law promises.
–William M. Saks, Cleveland Heights
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