On October 12, 2006, a prisoner in the Shelby County Detention Center filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Shelby County and the Shelby County Detention Center. The plaintiff, represented by private counsel, sought class-action certification and asked the court for declaratory relief, injunctive relief, and damages, claiming that conditions in the Kentucky jails violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Plaintiff alleged that the habitually overcrowded condition of the Jail and the deliberate indifference of jail officials to prevent infectious disease caused his exposure to methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The jail incarcerated inmates with infected persons without such inmates' knowledge, and failed to train Jail employees on policies to prevent conditions that foster the growth and spread of the disease. This is one of a pair of class action cases filed by inmates who claimed to have been infected with MRSA while incarcerated in Kentucky jails. MRSA is a flesh-eating bacteria that can cause debilitating open sores, pain and death.

Discovery issues dominated the case for the first few years.

On May 29, 2009, the plaintiffs filed a second amended complaint, which had abandoned the claims for class action certification but added plaintiffs to the case.

On May 25, 2010, Judge Karen K. Caldwell granted defendants' motion for dismissal of claims from one plaintiff. On January 7, 2011, Judge Caldwell dismissed the remainder of the claims and the case was dismissed with prejudice.

Dan Dalton - 09/17/2007
Jessica Kincaid - 02/15/2014


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