Lawsuit: Police stood by as man was beaten by prisoner in Myrtle Beach jail
A man who was arrested this summer in Myrtle Beach is suing the city after he says he was knocked out by another prisoner while police stood by.
Dakota Brown was on vacation, walking down Ocean Boulevard in June when he was arrested by Myrtle Beach Police. It is unclear why he was arrested and the lawsuit claims that Brown was not provided with a copy of a warrant, traffic ticket, or notice for a court date and that his charges were dismissed.
There are no Horry County court records for Brown’s arrest or charges that match the date of the incident.
The City of Myrtle Beach declined to comment on the lawsuit.
At the Myrtle Beach Municipal Detention Center he was placed in a cell with other prisoners. There were no “screening procedures or policies which would ensure that violent or mentally ill inmates are segregated from the general population,” according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Horry County court. While waiting for his bond another prisoner started to aggressively yell and scream at the officers, the lawsuit said.
The prisoner then turned his anger towards others in the cell. He shouted violent threats at them loud enough for the officers to hear. Several officers walked directly by the cell while the inmate was in the midst of his “threatening tirade,” the suit said.
The prisoner later punched Brown, knocking him unconscious. Brown was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with a broken nose and suffered extensive bruising and swelling to his eyes, face and throat, according to the lawsuit. Although police could hear the threats, which “constituted actual notice that the inmate posed a significant safety risk,” they did nothing, the suit states.
Brown was then taken back to his hotel room and received no documentation of his arrest, the suit says.
He is suing the City of Myrtle Beach for wrongful arrest and negligence. The suit alleges that Brown has “incurred legal expenses and suffered conscious pain, suffering, indignity, mental anguish, emotional distress, humiliation, and great expense, loss of enjoyment of life, and will likely suffer” from the effects of the arrest now and in the future. Brown is suing for an unspecified amount of damages.
