Woman beaten to paralysis in prison refused state help with medical bills, lawyer says

When other inmates saw four guards beating a handcuffed Cheryl Weimar outside the prison compound, they initially thought she was dead. The mentally ill 51-year-old woman was limp as the male correctional officers delivered the blows, a federal lawsuit alleges. Her head bobbed along the ground, eyes rolled back.

The 21 August assault at Florida's Lowell Correctional Institution nearly killed Ms Weimar, and left her a quadriplegic. At the hospital where she has spent the last few weeks, she breathes through a tracheotomy and eats through a tube. She will need round-the-clock medical care for the rest of her life, according to the lawsuit.

Now, Ms Weimar's lawyer claims in a new lawsuit the Florida Department of Corrections is trying to wriggle out of paying for that care. Prison officials are seeking to release the injured woman from their custody early, a move that would free them from covering her medical bills.

“The only reason she needs any sort of medical care for quadriplegia is as a result of their employees,” attorney Ryan Andrews told The Washington Post. “In my view, they've been playing games with her since this happened.”

Department of Corrections representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations, which were first reported by the Miami Herald. In court filings, the agency has denied wrongdoing and asked the judge to dismiss the case.

Officials have not publicly identified the guards who attacked Ms Weimar. Mr Andrews, who filed the most recent lawsuit to force the department to turn over records, said they are still on the job.

The beating was the latest tragedy for Ms Weimar, her attorney said. She showed up at a relative's house at six years old with cigarette burns on her body, he said. She drifted in and out of jail over the years, the Herald reported, arrested on charges, including loitering, burglary, prostitution and public drunkenness. At times, she experienced homelessness.

“She basically spent her whole life on the streets just trying to get by,” Mr Andrews said of Ms Weimar, who is bipolar and suffers an anxiety disorder.

She landed at the Lowell Correctional Institution in 2016. The Central Florida women's prison is the state's largest and country's second-largest, according to the Herald, which has documented deaths, mistreatment and abuse behind its walls. The facility is the subject of a US Department of Justice investigation, the newspaper reported.

Ms Weimar was sentenced to serve six years there after pleading no contest to aggravated battery and resisting arrest with violence. The charges stemmed from a 2015 altercation with her ex-boyfriend in Broward County, during which Ms Weimar cut him with a knife.

On 21 August, about eight months into her sentence, Ms Weimar was on work duty. She was tasked with cleaning toilets but, because of a hip condition, told the guards she couldn't do it. The guards became irate - and then violent.

“With a bad hip and nothing more than cleaning supplies, [Ms Weimar] was defenceless,” the lawsuit says.

The guards allegedly slammed her to the ground and hit her in the head, neck and back. They dragged her outside, to an area where surveillance cameras couldn't record the beating. Other inmates watched in horror and begged other employees to intervene, Mr Andrews said. Some were convinced the guards were beating a dead body.

When it was over, one of the prison employees said, “She was already disabled; they just disabled her more,” according to the lawsuit.

Ms Weimar was taken to Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville. She is being treated by medical providers contracted by the corrections department, confined in a medical wing reserved for prisoners.

With credit for time served, Ms Weimar is not scheduled to be released until January 2021, records show. But now, Mr Andrews said, the Department of Corrections is considering seeking a medical release so that she gets out sooner. His lawsuit claims department employees persuaded her to sign documents she did not understand, which signed over her disability benefits.

If Ms Weimar were released, Mr Andrews said, the agency would only be responsible for half of her medical costs, while Medicare would cover the rest. The change would be made through what's called Conditional Medical Release, a programme that allows the corrections department to recommend that a commission approve the early release of terminally ill or permanently incapacitated inmates.

Mr Andrews said he is usually supportive of the concept, which allows the imprisoned a chance to spend time with loved ones while they are dying or disabled. But in this case, he's suspicious of the motivation.

“I don't think it's good faith,” he said. “I'm not sure how much good faith you could possibly have here when your employees do this to her.”

The Washington Post