Jail Death of Homeless Man Results in $350,000 Verdict against Corrections Officers

By Mary Mitchell

Published on March 21, 2007

Police found Calzada, a 52-year-old homeless man with an alcohol problem, lying on a public sidewalk one night in Charlottesville, Virginia. Deborah C. Wyatt, the attorney retained by Calzada's former girlfriend Karen Payne, alleged that the police called off a paramedics response to help Calzada, took him to the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, left him on the floor of a jail cell, kicked him as he lay comatose, and failed to monitor him adequately. Calzada was dead by morning. The autopsy report noted that Calzada suffered a brain hemorrhage and died from blunt force trauma to his head. A witness told police that she had seen Calzada fall backwards on the sidewalk, hitting his head. She described seeing his head bounce twice on the pavement in the fall.

Wyatt, who has argued successfully before the U.S. Supreme Court that public drunkenness is not an offense for which an individual should be jailed, also alleged in the lawsuit that Calzada was held without legal authority. Judge Margaret Spencer ruled on March 13, 2007 that five correction officers who had contact that night with Calzada should pay $250,000 in compensatory damages and $100,000 in punitive damages to Calzada's estate.

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