Settlement in death of jailed teen
MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- The state has agreed to pay $1.45 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the mother of a teenager who died in agony from a burst appendix in a juvenile jail.
Cherry Williams sued the state and Miami Children's Hospital for $25 million over the death last year of her son, 17-year-old Omar Paisley, alleging jail employees and nurses ignored his desperate pleas for help for three days before he died.
The hospital, which was under contract to provide nurses at the jail, also agreed to settle but did not disclose the terms.
A grand jury issued a blow-by-blow account of Paisley's death, saying a guard told Paisley to "suck it up" as he retched, wept and moaned from abdominal pain.
The death prompted a shake-up in the Department Juvenile Justice and the departure of nearly two dozen employees, including the agency's secretary and the jail's superintendent. Two nurses have been charged with manslaughter and murder.
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