A former inmate at Clark County jail has filed a lawsuit against Southwest Washington County, claiming that its corrections employees are undertrained, negligent, and regularly engage in the use of excessive force.
According to Oregon Public Broadcasting, the lawsuit was filed on behalf of plaintiff O’Neal Payne. Attorneys for Payne say that, on August 13, 2021, officers conducted a routine sweep of Payne’s cell, ostensibly to search for contraband and remove garbage.
However, after officers entered Payne’s cell, they allegedly slammed him into a wall, tied a rope around his wrists, and “dragged him across the ground in the jail.”
The lawsuit claims that Southwest Washington County violated Payne’s 14th Amendment rights, both by subjecting him to excessive force and by depriving him of timely and adequate medical care.
Oregon Public Broadcasting notes that a surveillance camera captured footage of the incident.

“The video inside the cell, at the same time shows Inmate [redacted] attempting to stand up, but only making it to his knees before he is yanked backward with enough force that his foot flew up over his head,” a Clark County Sheriff’s Office employee wrote in an internal affairs report.
Footage from outside of the cell shows deputies using a tether to pull Payne’s arms through a food port before dragging him across the floor.
Payne was purportedly left with “lacerations to his wrists and hands, rug burn, deep bruising on his knee, permanent scarring on his wrists, and mental and emotional distress.”
“Dragging a handcuffed Black mana round the jail floor with a rope is inhumane and a vile abuse of power,” said Alicia LeDuc Montgomery, an attorney representing Payne in the claim.
After the incident, the Clark County Sheriff’s Office determined that one of its employees had used excessive force and violated policy during an internal investigation. All the other deputies involved in the incident were cleared of wrongdoing.
“The actions of the jail deputies were not only excessive but also indicative of a broader failure to adequately train personnel, and constituted negligence on the part of Clark County leadership,” said Jordan Taylor, another attorney representing Payne.
“This lawsuit seeks to hold accountable those responsible for this inhumane treatment and to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future,” Taylor said.
Payne, notes The Sacramento Bee, was sentenced in January 2022 to three years in prison after being convicted of attempting to solicit teenage girls to perform sex acts. He had attempted to represent himself through proceedings.
Sources
Deputies tie handcuffed man to rope, drag him across jail cell floor in WA, lawsuit says
Former jail detainee files suit against Clark County alleging excessive force
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