Inmate Claims Guards Let Him Be Beaten for Ratting Out a Food Hoarder

A former guest of the Cook County Detention Center is suing his jailers, claiming they let a violent gangbanger beat him as punishment for tattling.

Fisher J. Hughes, assigned to pass out food to inmates, noticed that one was hoarding food. He told a guard, Deputy Delphine Bridges, according to the lawsuit. Bridges, however, told the hungry man, a gang member, that Hughes had ratted him out. Later, Bridges and Sgt. Roxanne Boutte left Hughes unattended, on Nov. 8, 2012, and let the gang member beat him severely, damaging his tibia, the lawsuit claims.

Previously, on Oct. 5, 2011, Hughes was slashed on the hand with a jailhouse shank, which prompted a jailhouse search for weapons and later Hughes was placed into protective custody.

Hughes filed the suit in September 2014, naming the two guards and Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart as defendants. He seeks more than $30,000 in damages and accuses them of negligence, jail overcrowding, understaffing and a lack of supervision.