Jury Rejects Ex-Inmate’s Claim of Neglect
A Superior Court jury Friday rejected a lawsuit filed by a former inmate at the Pitchess jail in Castaic who claimed that when he was injured, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies refused to take him to the jail clinic for treatment.
Mustafa Alami sued the department after injuring his Achilles tendon during a two-week incarceration in 1991 on a mistaken warrant, said Neal Moore, an attorney representing the county. Alami alleged that deputies ignored his requests to go to the clinic, forcing him to hobble painfully around the sprawling jail.
Alami sought damages for pain and suffering as well as $50,000 in medical expenses, Moore said.
But the jury found that deputies were not delinquent in their treatment of him. “Basically, we convinced the jury that these people wouldn’t have allowed that to happen,” Moore said.
Alami’s attorney, Imad Elias, said the next step is a lawsuit against Alami’s previous attorney for legal malpractice.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
