Family Alleges That Illegal Jailing Led to Amputation

The American Civil Liberties Union alleges in a lawsuit that a Missouri judge illegally jailed three relatives after a custody hearing, resulting in one of them, a diabetic man, undergoing a partial foot amputation.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the lawsuit was filed Monday in federal court in Springfield. It says Texas County Associate Judge Douglas Gaston ordered grandparents Norma and Arthur Rogers and their son-in-law, William Hale, to jail for drug testing after they appeared before him without attorneys during a custody hearing in June 2017.

Hale and Norma Rogers spent eight hours in jail, most of the time cuffed to a metal bench. The suit says Gaston accused Arthur Rogers of giving him a “look” and ordered him held overnight. The suit says Hale’s cuff caused an ulcer, which led to an infection and amputation.

Gaston said in an email that he couldn’t comment.