GREAT FALLS — A federal jury in Great Falls awarded more than $27 million dollars in a lawsuit filed against private prison company CoreCivic to Nathaniel Lake, who was nearly beaten to death in one of their prisons in Shelby.
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While serving time in the CoreCivic owned Crossroads Correctional Center in Shelby in 2018, Nathaniel Lake was assaulted by another inmate, beaten and choked for more than three minutes without intervention from staff. He was found unconscious fifteen minutes later and life-flighted to Benefis Hospital in Great Falls, where he was in a coma for 33 days.
Lake spent four months in the ICU before returning to the prison for another six months until his conviction for attempted sexual intercourse without consent was overturned by the Montana Supreme Court, making Lake a free man.
However, his mobility, coordination,and cognitive abilities remain severely and permanently impacted, including difficulty walking, and speech and memory impairment.
A federal jury found the Tennessee-based company CoreCivic liable for failing to protect Lake and awarded $27,750,000 in compensatory damages.
One of the attorneys representing Lake, John Heenan of Heenan & Cook, says it’s a small price for the permanent injuries, costs, and trauma that Lake will face for the rest of his life.
Heenan explains, “For Nate to kind of live a life, not even a normal life, but a life, with the doctor's visits and everything in the future, it’s millions of dollars”.
According to a news release from Lake’s attorneys, the inmate that assaulted Lake was serving a double life sentence without parole for deliberate homicide, and had previously assaulted 11 other inmates. The assailant buzzed out of his own locked pod and into Lake’s locked pod without interference from jail staff.
According to court documents, the inmate assaulted Lake because he believed that Lake had attacked his dog while in the yard.
Heenan believes the violent incident is part of a larger problem, and hopes this case can bring policy changes to CoreCivic facilities, saying, “Mr. Lake's circumstance is not isolated…there's been other people who have had problems at CoreCivic facilities. I mean, one of the things that came out in the trial was, when we asked CoreCivic, has there been any policy changes since this? I mean, it happened seven years ago, was anybody terminated? Was there any investigation? And CoreCivic just said, no, no investigation, no consequences, no policy changes.”
CoreCivic is a for-profit prison operator with more than 40 jails and prisons across the country, as well as immigration detention facilities.
A spokesperson for CoreCivic, Ryan Gustin, told MTN, “We take the safety and well-being of every person in our care very seriously. We respectfully disagree with this decision, don't believe it reflects the facts of the case, and will appeal it on several legal grounds.”
Lake’s legal team says they will keep fighting for him until the judgement is paid.
Heenan says, “I understand, you know, they want to still say they didn't do anything wrong. But respectfully, a Montana jury said otherwise…Among the many kinds of policy issues that come out of a jury verdict like this, I think it’s cause for the state of Montana to be examining, kind of, good use of our tax dollars, is this where Montana wants to send its prisoners?”
