The Price of One Leg: $1.5 Million
This just in: Park County officials have agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a Mexican immigrant who lost his leg as a result of an infection he contracted in the county jail in 2003 while awaiting deportation.
The grim saga of Moises Carranza-Reyes, who had been a police officer in Mexico before his ill-fated trip north in search of less dangerous work, can be found here. County officials decided to settle after U.S. District Judge Walker Miller refused to throw out the case. Miller found the claims of overcrowding, inadequate sanitation, and poor medical care raised by Carranza-Reyes could lead a jury to find Park County officials had exhibited “deliberate indifference,” failing to treat the immigrant’s worsening symptoms until he had to be rushed to a Denver hospital for amputation of his left leg. -- Alan Prendergast
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