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Lawsuit: Adams County took inmate's prosthetic leg, forcing him to crawl up stairs

Stanley Daves claims his prosthetic was taken from him and he was denied access to an elevator and left to hop/crawl up two flights of stairs.

ADAMS COUNTY, Colo. — A former inmate at the Adams County Detention Center on Tuesday filed a civil lawsuit against Adams County in District Court claiming his prosthetic leg was taken from him and he was forced to crawl up several flights of stairs.

Stanley Daves, now 54, had his left leg amputated when he was struck by a drunk driver at the age of 17, according to the lawsuit. He also sustained a brain injury from the incident, the lawsuit says.

He was arrested on a warrant for drug-related charges on Oct. 6, 2017, according to the suit and was booked into the Adams County Detention Center the next morning. He was housed there between October 2017 and June 2018.

The Adams County Sheriff's Office said it could not comment on the lawsuit.

"As a rule, if this is going to go to litigation, we do not provide comments on the case." said Sgt. Paul Gregory, public information officer for the Adams County Sheriff Office.

At intake, the lawsuit alleges that Daves' "Smart Puck" equipped prosthetic leg was taken from him because it required the use of an electrical outlet to be charged. He was denied crutches and given a wheelchair to use, according to the suit.

On Oct. 20, he was escorted to an elevator so that he could attend a meeting with his lawyer but was told by a deputy that  "the key was lost" according to the suit and "he was not going to do anything else to locate the key," the lawsuit says.

Credit: Adams County
Stanley E. Daves mugshot

Daves was told that the elevator was the only accessible elevator for inmates, according to the suit, and that if he needed to get up to the visit, he would have to "crawl/hop up" the stairs, the lawsuit says.

"They had no way to get me up the stairs or up the elevator without the key," Daves said. "They said, 'If you want to get up to the see your lawyer, you have to crawl up there.'"

Daves did attempt to climb the two flights of stairs but slipped, the lawsuit says, and slammed his shoulder into a handrail. He said he alerted a deputy about the fall, but failed to get a response and then "continued to crawl on his hands and knees" to the visiting booth, according to the suit.

"I was mid-stride and I just slammed my shoulder into the rail," Daves said. "It was scary."

The elevator key had still not been located by the time Daves had finished meeting with his attorney, and according to the suit, deputies made comments along the lines of "you made it up there by yourself, you can make it down the same way."

Daves said his injuries left him unable to work.

"I'm a cosmetologist, a hairdresser, by trade," Daves said. "Been doing that my whole life. I don't know if I'm going to be able to do that anymore with the shoulder injury. A lot of our time is spent with our arms above your head. And then being on my feet, I don't know how long I'm going to be able to withstand being on my prosthetic right now."

The lawsuit alleges that despite Daves' injuries he was repeatedly denied access to medical care and didn't receive proper care until February 2018.

Daves was also denied access to religious services and when he was finally able to attend a service, the lawsuit says, he was forced to crawl up the stairs to do so.

Over several weeks, the lawsuit claims, Daves was offered no choice but crawl up and down the stairs to attend religious services and meetings with his attorney.

"It's just hard to express how you feel when you're treated like a dog, literally being whistled at," Daves said.

It wasn't until Jan. 2, 2018 that a guard saw him crawling up the stairs and questioned why he was doing so, the lawsuit says. This time after his visit with his attorney ended, the lawsuit says he was escorted by a deputy to a service elevator where a key was not required for access.

"There was no reason for me to ever be on the stairs," Daves said. "This was just all for nothing. It was cruel and unusual at the very best."

A spokesperson for the Adams County government said they can't yet speak about the lawsuit.

“This lawsuit was just filed and we have not had adequate time to review and cannot offer comment at this time,” Jim Siedlecki, director of communications for Adams County, said on the phone Wednesday.

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