Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The (Everett) Herald reports a federal lawsuit ended last week with a $1.5 million settlement paid by the state to the estate of former Centralia resident Gordon C. Powell Jr. who was beaten to death while incarcerated at the Monroe Correctional Complex.

Gordon “Casey” Powell Jr.

News reporter Eric Stevik writes the suit delved into questions about the oversight and custody classification of Benjamin Cory Price, a convicted killer whose delusional thoughts concerned both corrections officers and mental health workers.

Powell, 45, was serving a five year sentence, for second-degree burglary and third-degree assault following incidents in in Centralia in October 2014 and died the following May.

Both men were being held in the prison’s Special Offender Unit, which was opened in 1981 to provide a facility to treat and house the many seriously mentally ill inmates.

Read more about it here, “State settles prison death lawsuit for $1.5 million” from The (Everett) Herald on Sunday June 18, 2017
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For background, read “Prisoner accused of beating to death fellow inmate, a local man” from Wednesday May 20 2015, here

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 21st, 2017 at 6:23 pm and is filed under News briefs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.