“He was refusing his meds and in a psychotic state. Ryan Partridge plucked his own eyeballs from his head” – Lawyer David Lane
A large settlement has been reached in a civil lawsuit filed by a former inmate who plucked his eyeballs out of his head while answering untreated delusions during a severe schizophrenic episode inside his Colorado jail cell. The lawsuit resulted in two settlements. One is for $2.225 million for being “deliberately indifferent to his serious psychiatric needs.” The other was against jail staff for $325,000 for repeatedly using excessive force.
“It is hoped that this settlement sends a message to the Boulder Sheriff and law enforcement everywhere that when they ignore the serious psychiatric needs of inmates, it will cost them millions of dollars,” attorney Lane said.
Partridge told CBS Colorado that the CIA was telling him to harm himself. He wound up in jail after his arrest for a minor assault with another homeless person, his attorney said.
✱ Weeks earlier Partridge jumped head first from a railing on the second-floor. He broke a vertebra.
✱ A month later he tried the same thing, but the guards talked him down.
✱ Prior to successfully gouging his eyes out, Partridge banged his head into his toilet, leaving his head and face bloodied and breaking seven teeth.
✱ “I don’t like solitary. I don’t think this would have happened had I not been in solitary” – Partridge
“If any of the defendants had initiated appropriate medical intervention on behalf of Mr. Partridge, he would not be blind today, would not have broken seven teeth, or jumped from the second tier smashing his head into the metal table and cement floor of the jail and breaking his back,” the lawsuit said.
