$25K Settlement Reached In Tuscaloosa Jail Excessive Force Case

TUSCALOOSA, AL — The Tuscaloosa County Commission on Wednesday approved a $25,000 cash settlement for a man who claims he was the victim of excessive force by a detention officer at the Tuscaloosa County Jail several years ago.

The plaintiff in the lawsuit — Jarred Twomey — was a Texas A&M student who was arrested for public intoxication in 2016 when visiting Tuscaloosa for a football game. In the lawsuit, he claimed excessive force by a county jail detention officer resulted in a laceration on his eyebrow that required stitches, along with a concussion that required multiple doctor's visits.

Conflicting accounts of the incident are listed in court documents, with Twomey claiming he was shoved into a wall by detention officer Tyler Waid when he was undergoing a routine search and processing at the jail. Testimony from detention officers, however, asserts that Twomey, who was intoxicated to the point of having "amnesia," tripped and hit his head, causing the injuries.

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Tuscaloosa County Attorney Robert Spence told Patch that the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office investigated the incident in question and determined there to be no misconduct on the part of the detention officer, who had no prior record of violations.

Court records do cite one other grievance against Waid filed by an inmate of the jail, which was ultimately dismissed when the inmate declined to move forward with prosecution.

"[The settlement] is $25,000 and no admission of liability," Spence said. "It just covers his medical costs."

Spence went on to say that when the Commission examined the lawsuit, they ultimately didn't believe it to have much in the way of merit and didn't want to invest the funds in fighting a protracted court case.

"It's supposed to be tried later this year, so they weighed the cost of trying it, and getting people in for the trial and they decided that $25,000 was the most they wanted to spend and they agreed on that," he said.

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