A San Diego County jail inmate says two deputies closed a door onto his finger and severed it, then jail staff ignored his medical needs and forces him to work through the amputation.<\/p>\n
SAN DIEGO (CN) \u2014\u00a0An inmate in the San Diego County Jail who says that his thumb was amputated when a door closed on his hand while he was being patted down by two deputies can proceed with a lawsuit<\/a> against the deputies and jail staff, a federal judge found.<\/p>\n Mauricio Bernal says that he was being patted down near a metal open staff doorway while incarcerated in the jail<\/a> in July 2023. As the door began to close, deputies Richard Pham and T. Gonzales moved his arms toward the door, severing his thumb and permanently damaging his index finger, he says.<\/p>\n U.S. District Judge Anthony Whelan, a Bill Clinton appointee, allowed the negligence claims against the deputies for the injury live on despite the county\u2019s attempt to dismiss the case.<\/p>\n Whelan found that Bernal sufficiently claimed that the deputies had caused his hand to be injured, citing a similar case<\/a> in which a woman lost a fingertip when her hand accidentally got caught in a door also during a routine jail pat-down.<\/p>\n \u201cThe incident cannot be characterized as the unfortunate result of plaintiff\u2019s own decision-making,\u201d Whelan ruled on Wednesday. \u201cInstead, plaintiff alleges that this conduct breached the jailer\u2019s duty to keep him safe from unreasonable harm since it caused him to place his fingers in harm\u2019s way. Further, plaintiff alleges that he has suffered several damages because of this incident, including physical impairment, grief, anxiety and past and future medical expenses.”<\/p>\n \u201cWe are very pleased with the court\u2019s ruling and, most importantly, that Mr. Bernal will be able to pursue his negligence claims against the deputies involved in the incident,\u201d Whelan\u2019s attorney Brian Mason said in a statement to Courthouse News. \u201cThis was a horrific and entirely preventable injury.\u201d<\/p>\n Whelan also found that Bernal sufficiently described the jail staff conduct behind his claim of deliberate indifference to serious medical needs. In his lawsuit<\/a>, Bernal claims<\/a> that jail staff failed to provide him with adequate medical care<\/a> and refused to let him get his injury treated everyday.<\/p>\n Additionally, he says he was ordered to take out the trash despite his injury, and mocked by jail staff who gave him a thumbs-up gesture and drew a picture of a severed finger on his cell door.\u00a0Whelan allowed the deliberate indifference claim against 20 unnamed jail staff defendants he claims were involved.<\/p>\n