TAMPA — The man shot and killed during a police chase in 2022 has almost died after several weeks of Polk County Jail officials refused to treat a gunshot wound, according to a federal lawsuit filed last month.
Jason L. Pickles alleges that sheriff’s deputies have offered him less than Ibuprofen because the bullet wounds that remained in his knee became increasingly painful and infected. Deputies ignored his request, and the complaint stated, retaliating against him when he complained.
The lawsuit alleges that Picklese’s constitutional rights violated and that lawmakers illegally retaliated against him for his complaints. I am seeking unspecified damages.
Pickle filed a lawsuit last spring, asking the court to approve the lawyer.
US District Judge Mary Scriven subsequently appointed attorneys Heather Lee and Jason Metah for Foley and Lardner’s company to represent him. Their civil complaint was filed in court last month.
“When an individual is imprisoned, we, as a society, expect prison custodians to provide appropriate medical needs,” Lee and Mehta said in a statement. “That didn’t happen here.”
In response to a request for comment on the lawsuit, Polk County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Scott Wilder issued a statement highlighting Pickles’ criminal history.
“Because of his violent actions, he was shot by law enforcement officers and then received free medical care at taxpayer’s expense,” Wilder wrote. “And now he has filed a frivolous lawsuit complaining about all the medical care he received. His lawsuit has no merit.”
Pickle had been arrested 16 times in Polk County and went to jail eight times. His past convictions stem from his youth include aggravated assault and grand theft.
The allegations at the heart of his case allegedly show that the agent has shown “intentional indifference” to his medical needs. It highlights the constitutional obligations of prison officials having to provide appropriate medical care to detainees, claiming that Pickle’s negligence violated his rights.
Defendants named in the suit include Tyler Wilson, Robert Kennon, Ronald Hensley II and Joshua Baker. It is also named Yescare, which provides medical care to prisoners and nurses who worked in the company.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd was listed as the defendant in the original complaint but later dropped out of the case.
Pickle, 45, was arrested in November 2022 after a car chase with Winter Haven police. Court records show that during the pursuit, Pickle drove towards one of the police officers, who fired six gunshots in fear of being hit by the car.
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According to the complaints, his left butt slapped a pickle into his left butt, tearing his thighs and stopping his left knee. He was taken to Lakeland Regional Medical Center, where he was released several hours later, with the bullet still in his lap.
When detectives later interviewed him, Pickle complained of pain and said he was cold, inconsistent and fell asleep, the lawsuit states. He was later placed in a prison medical dormitory, where he continued to complain of pain. The prison agent did nothing for him, the complaint said.
Pickle first appeared in a wheelchair before the court, telling the judge that his agent ignored medical requests. The judge assured him that he would be treated in prison, but still nothing was done, the lawsuit alleges.
The pain has worsened. Pickle’s complaints became even more desperate.
“The only remedy he was offered from time to time was ibuprofen,” the complaint states.
Approximately a week after he entered prison, Pickles filed a complaint form against his agent, claiming they refused to provide medical care to him. According to the lawsuit, lawmakers retaliated by moving Pickles into a “self-harm” cell, where they only had beds, blankets and smocks. He asked a mental health counselor for help there, but still didn’t get treatment.
The complaint gives a graphic explanation that pickle wounds become infected, with “brown colored bloody cat” pooling on the cell’s floor, soaking smocks and drying them on the legs and arms. The resulting odor elicited complaints from males in adjacent cells.
The infection led him to develop “bilateral edema,” a swelling of the limbs, which left him motionless.
As his condition worsened, one aide tried to help by spraying unidentified sanitizer on his wounds, the lawsuit said. But that seemed to make things worse. Pickles was still denied further treatment.
At the next court hearing, the judge ordered Pickles to receive appropriate medical treatment, but he was in pain for several more weeks. He was only taken to hospital when Pickle reached the “brink of death” almost a month after he was imprisoned, the complaint states. He had emergency surgery to remove the bullet. He received antibiotics and pain medication.
Hospital officials were “terribly shocked,” the complaint said. By that point, the infection has spread to the pickle’s heart and blood flow.
When he returned to prison, he was stripped and tied up to a bed in the clinic where he spent several days, according to the complaint. He wasn’t asked why he was held.
Prosecutors ultimately ended up lowering the household battery charge to Pickles, but he pleaded guilty to other charges, including resistance to officers and fleeing or fleeing. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
Pickles’s lawsuit is similar to another person involving a man who claimed that medical staff ignored treatment while in 2015 while in custody at the Polk County Jail. In that case, Ricky Lee Christmas claimed that the two prison doctors had shown intentional indifference to his medical needs. He suffered a gunshot wound to his abdomen. The 2021 ju judge discovered that he was entitled to more than $400,000 in damages.
