What's going on at the Escambia County Jail?

"There wasn't a melee. Mr. Presley slipped and fell and hit his head on the floor," he said. "They're after money. That's what a lawsuit is." Escambia County Sheriff Grover Smith responding to allegations of prisoner abuse in pending federal lawsuit.

The plaintiff's attorney, Charles Morris III, attempting to show a chronology of "systemic" problems at the jail, cites over 20 news articles in the Mobile Register:

"When you read the records, you'd have to answer that question, 'yes.' They've had problems back to '93," he said. "They have people breaking out of jail. They have people breaking into jail. They've had indictments of inmates. They've had indictments of staff. They're sorely understaffed."

The plaintiff, Rodney Stewart Presley, has filed suit asking for unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for head injuries he sustained in a melee in June of 2006. Presley was a pre-trial detainee at the time for a charge of burglary which was later dropped.

Also named in the suit against Sheriff Grover Smith is the Escambia County Commission.

According to a story in the Mobile Register by staff reporter, Brendan Kirby:

A federal magistrate judge in Mobile on Wednesday[November 28] ordered Escambia County Sheriff Grover Smith to provide records about his jail's policies to a Bay Minette man who is suing over injuries he suffered at the jail last year.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Bert Milling Jr. ruled that Rodney Stewart Presley must use the Policy and Procedures Manual for the lawsuit only and cannot give it to anyone other than his attorney and expert witnesses who might testify.

Milling also ruled that Smith and the Escambia County Commission can have access to Presley's medical records, but they likewise must keep the information confidential.

Stay tuned, this promises to be serious for Escambia County Sheriff Grover Smith.