A 33-year-old inmate serving a 15-year prison sentence on two drug convictions is suing the state and its Department of Public Safety, claiming he was beaten by guards while in his cell at Hawaii Community Correctional Center.
The civil lawsuit was filed pro se — meaning without an attorney — Tuesday in Hilo Circuit Court by Clayton Michael Sexton, who is incarcerated at Saguaro Correctional Facility in Eloy, Ariz., and seeks unspecified monetary damages.
According to the DPS website, Sexton’s scheduled release date is Dec. 19, 2031.
The complaint alleges unnamed adult correction officers entered his cell on an unspecified date in January 2016 and administered a beating that broke facial bones and caused facial lacerations. Sexton further alleges he was confined in his cell for at least 12 hours after the alleged attack without being allowed to seek medical treatment. He was later taken to the infirmary, the suit states.
Sexton claims to have suffered “permanent disfigurement as the result of the beating,” that he continues to suffer emotional and psychologically, and that his “physical condition worsened as the result of … not being taken for medical care immediately.”
According to the suit, the alleged beating violated Sexton’s right to due process under the law and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
Sexton described the alleged beating as “mean spirited, vile and demented.”
Krishna Jayaram, spokesman for the state Department of the Attorney General, said the state has “no comment on pending litigation.”
Sexton’s lawsuit is at least the second filed within the past year-and-a-half by an inmate alleging physical abuse by HCCC guards.
A civil suit filed June 14, 2017, by inmate Chawn Kaili against DPS, retired warden Peter MacDonald, ACO watch commander Jon Waikiki, former ACO Sgt. Jonathan Taum, and former guards Gregory Pinkney, Jason Tagaloa and Jonathan Demattos alleges Kaili was unlawfully restrained and battered by guards on June 15, 2015.
Kaili’s suit, which hasn’t been settled, claims Taum, Pinkney, Tagaloa and Demattos were part of a group of guards known as the “Alpha Dawgs,” who “used their positions of authority to intimidate and attempt to intimidate inmates.”
DPS spokeswoman Toni Schwartz said in June 2017 the last day of employment for Taum, Pinkney, Tagaloa and Demattos was Dec. 23, 2016. She did not specify whether they resigned or were fired.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
