Lawyer for DOC responds to prison guard lawsuit - KOTA Territory News

Lawyer for DOC responds to prison guard lawsuit

Posted:

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) _ A lawyer for the South Dakota Department of Corrections denied that corrections staff knowingly contributed to the death of prison guard Ronald Johnson last year.

Lawyer James E. Moore filed a 15-page response Wednesday to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Johnson family.

The lawsuit alleges that Warden Doug Weber, state Corrections Secretary Denny Kaemingk and others disregarded the risk that inmates Rodney Berget and Eric Robert posed to staff in the South Dakota State Penitentiary.

But Moore denies the defendants' actions caused Johnson's death. Berget and Robert acknowledged killing Johnson by hitting him with a pipe and wrapping his head in plastic wrap before using his uniform in an attempt to escape. The two men have been sentenced to death.

 

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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