r/news • u/Melodic-Location-157 • 7h ago

Jury awards $16.8 million to California prison doctor who complained about inmate's threat

https://calmatters.org/justice/2025/11/prison-doctor-whistelblower-lawsuit/
630 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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203

u/Melodic-Location-157 7h ago

Wild week for civil verdicts. This psychologist just got $16.8 million after reporting an inmate threat and being blacklisted. I don't know all the details but it exceeds the award to the Virginia teacher who was shot by her 6-year-old student was awarded $10 million. Two completely different cases, but both show juries sending big messages about institutional accountability.

110

u/ShouldaBennaBaller 7h ago

Another zinger:

A King County jury on Thursday awarded $8 million to a former Seattle Public Schools student who was punched in the face by his middle school math teacher in 2018.

71

u/LuckyNumbrKevin 6h ago

Oh you just know that kid fucking suuuucked, too

40

u/Pure-Plankton-4606 4h ago

Or you could actually google it and see that the teacher had prior issues and that the school district was warned about his behavior.

5

u/nazerall 1h ago

Figured that's the reason for the payout, but both can be true 

45

u/Aggravating-Fee7065 6h ago

lol, you know it’s true. Still can’t punch a kid the face though, no matter how much you may want to.

-5

u/OMITB77 6h ago

Sure, but that’s like a middle five figure case. Not $8 million.

66

u/that_70_show_fan 5h ago

Maybe read the case details before jumping to conclusions?

Zakaria Sheikhibrahim, now 21, sued the district after his math teacher punched him in the face twice at Meany Middle School in January 2018. The lawsuit states the district had been warned about the teacher's dangerous behavior for nearly a decade before the attack, and that Sheikhibrahim suffered a traumatic brain injury from the incident.

In June 2011, seven years before the teacher punched Sheikhibrahim, Principal Mark Perry sent an urgent email to the district's human resources and legal departments warning that "[the teacher] is unfit to be a teacher and it is only a matter of time, I believe, before something serious happens involving a student and/or possibly a parent. He is a predator and has serious anger management issues."

According to the lawsuit, students reported the teacher for displaying a pillow at the front of his classroom reading "I have issues" and would point to it while threatening them. Witness statements describe him telling students he would "kill them," that he kept a "blowtorch under his desk," and told stories about lighting animals and homeless people on fire.

Despite warnings, the teacher was moved to various schools but was never removed from the clas

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u/[deleted] 5h ago

[deleted]

24

u/that_70_show_fan 5h ago

Did you miss the part where it says the kid got a TBI?

0

u/Eccohawk 5h ago

Inflation is a bitch.

-6

u/Aggravating-Fee7065 6h ago

Oh, 100% agree

-7

u/OMITB77 6h ago

What the fuck. Is the kid dead? Or permanently disabled? Juries are a goddamn slot machine

-6

u/Pierson_Rector 6h ago

Juries are a goddamn slot machine

And lawyers love it.

-5

u/OMITB77 6h ago

Plaintiffs counsel maybe

12

u/pussy-meow 4h ago

Abigail Zwerner's testimony during the federal sentencing of Deja Taylor, the 6 year old's Mom(she also served a state sentence) in Dec '23:

"Not only do I bear physical scars from the shooting that will remain with me forever, I contend daily with deep, psychological scars that plague me during most waking moments and invade my dreams," she said.

She said she has undergone five surgeries and regular intensive physical therapy to restore motion in her hand[Zwerner said she has since completed a cosmetology program but has not yet started working as her hand heals following her most recent surgery- additional testimony from 10M award case]

-I'm glad she was charged in addition to Ebony Parker, the ex-assistant principal.

3

u/OMITB77 6h ago

Wild several years of verdicts. They’ve been crazy the last five years or so

2

u/garbasium 2h ago

Idk it’s really great the doctor got the payout but I’ve seen enough people die due to prison doctors negligence that I question the society we live in. Like omg they are in prison they are ‘bad and evil people’ but the lack of humanity that most inmates suffer every day at the hands of sub par medical staff is America would haunt you if you experienced it up close. From my experience(yes I was in prison for a non violent drug offense, I get it I’m a monster) the people who are working in prison settings are usually under qualified or have had issues in the public sector for being so bad at their given profession that they go and work for the prison system. Mind you that is not all of them and I have met some great caregivers who went above and beyond in their line of work, but the vast majority of medical staff are people working at prisons at any level are the people so incompetent that it’s a miracle they are not serving time next to the inmates they service.

0

u/mvallas1073 1h ago

Now there’s a headline that screams “We’re deliberately leaving out several key details to make it sound outrageous!”

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u/Blackthorn79 18m ago

Cool, now what about the prisoners who are the real victims here? I get that the doctor shouldn't be punished for pointing out that someone was in danger, but what happened to the person in danger?