Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Settles Wrongful Death Suit for $1 Million

A wrongful death lawsuit against the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and a private company providing medical care to inmates has settled for a total of $1 million.  The action was filed by the family of Allen Daniel Hicks, a baseball coach and former Hillsborough County School District employee.  In May 2012, Hicks, who was 51 years old at the time, swerved his vehicle into a guardrail on I-275.  When officers arrived at the scene, Hicks was speaking incoherently and was unable to move his arm, according to an article in the St. Petersburg Times.

Rather than provide immediate medical assistance to Hicks, the officers arrested and charged him with obstructing a law enforcement officer.  He was placed in a cell at the Orient Road Jail just after noon on May 11, 2012 and was found unconscious 36 hours later on the night of May 12, 2013.  He was finally taken to Tampa General Hospital, where he was diagnosed with an ischemic stroke.  Hicks went into a coma and died three months later.

The lawsuit alleged that the Sheriff’s office and its medical services contractor failed to recognize the signs of Hick’s stroke and to treat him in a timely manner.  Armor Correctional Health Services Inc. paid $800,000 to Hicks’s estate, and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office paid an additional $200.000.