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Ex-inmate wants $10 million from Union City

By BEN NELMS
bnelms@TheCitizenNews.com

A Union City woman is demanding $10 million from the city of Union City and Georgia Correctional Health, LLC, for the treatment she received while in custody July 31, 2004, at South Fulton Municipal Regional Jail.

An exhaustive internal investigation conducted by jail Sgt. James Hall confims that 28 year-old Shakita Perdue was strapped nude into a restraint chair for several hours inside a holding cell, in plain view of male inmates and jail personnel in the area, with her genitalia exposed to those in proximity to her. The incident ended when day shift nurse Alene Campbell arrived for work, saw what was happening and stopped it. The female jailer in charge, Sgt. Tremata Anthony, was fired and the jail medical contractor, Georgia Correctional Health, LLC, no longer provides services at the facility.

Contacted Tuesday, 28-year-old Perdue said the incident began when she was arrested July 31 by Fairburn Police. The internal investigative summary revealed that Perdue was charged with disorderly conduct, obstruction of an officer, terroristic threats, obscene language and loitering. She was taken to South Fulton Municipal Regional Jail in Union City.

Perdue told investigators that she was “high” and disorderly when she arrived at the jail. An officer present after Perdue arrived told investigators that Perdue stated she was going to kill herself.

Georgia Correctional Health Nurse Cathy Adams, on duty when Perdue was brought in at 12:38 a.m., said Perdue needed to calm down, adding that Perdue had not been placed in the medical section, the area prescribed for inmates on suicide watch, because jail Sgt. Tremata Anthony informed her that she did not have an officer to place in medical with Perdue, according to the investigation.

Perdue claims she was restrained nude in a holding cell, referred to as the “cage,” for nearly five hours. Jail staff reported that the restraint covered approximately three and one-half hours. Prior to being restrained, Adams told investigators Perdue had been provided with two paper gowns, but Perdue removed one of the gowns to tie around her neck. A jail video showed Perdue trying to choke herself after being taken from the shower and placed in the “cage” at 2:55 a.m., the report said. Adams and Anthony entered the “cage” at approximately 2:56 a.m.

Prior to placing Perdue nude in the restraint chair, Anthony and another officer clearly used “excessive force” to forcibly hold the kicking and flailing Perdue on the floor, and ended up cutting her hair, the report said. Once in the restraint chair, Anthony also used pepper spray on Perdue, allegedly to prevent her from using her teeth to free herself, according to the report. Campbell told investigators that Adams had later told her that “the inmate called her names and if the cameras were not in the intake area she would have ‘knocked the inmate’s teeth out of her mouth’ for calling her names,” the report said.

Speaking about the incident Tuesday afternoon, Perdue said she was restrained with belts diagonally across her chest, her wrists handcuffed to the arms of the chair and her ankles handcuffed to the legs of the chair, with her legs open.

”They strapped me to a chair in what they call the cage, where everybody could see me,” Perdue said.

Campbell confirmed Perdue’s claim, stating that “she was very upset about Perdue being in the cage, nude, in four-point restraints, exposing her genitalia to male officers and other inmates,” the report said.

“I was crying and upset the whole time. It made me mad because they were exposing my body to everybody. People coming in could see me,” Perdue said, reluctant but willing to recall the incident. “I was wanting to get them because of the way they had my body exposed. It was embarrassing. It still is.”

Perdue said during her nearly five hours in the chair she was observed by three inmates in close proximity, two male officers, one female officer and a female nurse. But her nude body within their visual range was not the only insult she experienced, Perdue said. She also endured comments.

“One of the corrections officers said I was a drunk and an alcoholic,” Perdue claimed. “He made comments about my body, saying that nobody would want me.”

The internal investigation corroborates Perdue’s claim, with a video of a portion of the incident showing “at least four male officers that brought in male detainees while Perdue was strapped into the restraint chair, nude,” according to the report. One officer attempted to correct the situation by asking if he could place a blanket around Perdue. He was told he could not, the report said. The officer later put a blanket over a portion of the holding cell to help prevent Perdue from being viewed, said Perdue’s attorney, Eldridge Suggs IV.

Suggs said Tuesday that morning shift nurse Alene Campbell arrived at work and, once seeing what was happening to Perdue, put an end to the incident.

“The day shift nurse came in and stopped it all,” Suggs said. “She’s the hero in this tragic thing.”

Suggs said Monday that Perdue is demanding $10 million over the incident. Suggs said Georgia Correctional Health, LLc is considering the demand. Union City attorney Dennis Davenport said Tuesday that the city has denied the demand.