Jury Awards Former Detainee Daquan Wallace $25 Million In Jail Beating Case
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — The family of a man who was severely beaten in jail was awarded a $25 million verdict by a jury. Lawyers argued that some Baltimore City corrections officers actually allowed fellow inmates to attack the victim.
Attorneys said the attack was so brutal, the victim is now in a wheelchair and unable to talk. They said it happened when a violent gang was literally running the city jail.
"They were scared to death, so my client's mother called in and let the jail know that he was being beaten that he was being threatened and this is pleas were ignored," said attorney Cary Hansel.
Daquan Wallace was 20-years-old when his attorneys said he was viciously attacked at the old Baltimore City Detention Center after he refused to join the infamous Black Guerrilla Family gang.
His lawyers said back in 2014, Wallace was at the facility awaiting trial on a theft charge.
Hansel and another attorney argued that corrupt corrections officers orchestrated a plan that allowed at least two other inmates to beat Wallace so badly that when his roommate returned to the cell, he said, "...there was blood on the wall and blood and snot coming from [Wallace's] nose,"
Tuesday, the jury awarded Wallace's mother a $25 million verdict, even though these types of claims are capped at $200,000.
The Attorney General's office is reviewing the case.
Hansel and another attorney, Larry Greenberg pledge to fight for Wallace if there's an appeal.
"If there isn't a high price for doing his to someone, for putting them in a wheelchair, for intentionally allowing them to be brutally assaulted, then it will happen again and we are here to make sure that it doesn't happen again."