Attorneys for Eldred Joe, the 30-year-old black man severely beaten by an officer at the Marlboro County Detention Center in May, have filed a federal lawsuit against former detention officer Morgan Ridges and the Marlboro County Sheriff’s Office detailing the horrific ordeal Joe suffered while under arrest for a simple charge of disorderly conduct.
Joe is represented by nationally renowned civil rights attorney Bakari Sellers, Mario Pacella, Amy Willbanks, Alexandra Benevento, and Matthew Robins of the Strom Law Firm. This lawsuit is only one of several involving misconduct, violence and neglect in county jails being pursued by the Strom Law Firm team including the disturbing case of Larson Butler whose death while in custody at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center was later ruled a homicide.
According to the lawsuit, Joe was homeless and suffering from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia on May 3, 2023 when he was arrested after reports claimed he was attempting to pull up bushes in front of several businesses in Bennettsville, SC. Charged with disorderly conduct, which was later dismissed, Joe was booked into the Marlboro County Detention Center where he was subjected to severe brutality at the hands of Ridges, a detention officer at the jail. In fact, when Bennettsville Police officers arrived at Joe’s cell to transport him to a mental health evaluation, they found him curled into the fetal position with serious injuries rocking back and forth yelling “Lord help me.”
Ridges was arrested in June and charged with third degree assault and battery and misconduct in office following an investigation by the SC State Law Enforcement Division (SLED). Attorneys have repeatedly called on Marlboro County Sheriff Larry McNeil to act in the interest of transparency and release video of the beating that put Joe in the hospital for two weeks.
“Stories like this where men and women are beaten, brutalized, dehumanized and even killed in jails across America, often by the officers pledged to guard and protect them, are all too common and that’s just the ones we know about,” said Sellers. “Eldred’s Joe’s only crime was that he was sick. Officer Ridges didn’t beat him because he was violent or some kind of threat. He did it because he could and because he believed no one would care.”
Click here for a copy of the lawsuit
