Montgomery County Jail lawsuit settled for $5.6 million

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

A former Dayton man badly beaten while incarcerated at the Montgomery County Jail settled a federal lawsuit for $5.6 million, according to his attorneys.

The money will pay for the advanced medical care Joseph Guglielmo needs after being permanently injured during a 2015 incident involving a Montgomery County Sheriff’s sergeant that left him in a hospital bed in a coma for weeks, attorneys Nathan Stuckey, Jennifer Branch and Doug Brannon said Wednesday.

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A spokeswoman for the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said no one was available for immediate comment.

Guglielmo, 61, required surgery in which doctors opened up the left side of his face to repair broken facial bones. Twenty-four screws were drilled into his skull, doctors attached five titanium plates and the orbital floor of his eye was fractured so severely it could not be surgically repaired, the lawyers said. He is now wheelchair-bound and requires constant help.

“I can’t give my mom or my sister a proper hug,” Guglielmo said in a video created for mediation that was released exclusively to this news organization. “I can’t work any longer. I’m sitting here in a diaper … All my dignity is gone.

“My left side is completely shut down. I have what they call brain shear. I can feel my left side but I can’t get the message to the brain to my limbs,” Guglielmo said. “I am completely dependent upon people to do things.”

Guglielmo’s troubles began when he was in a cell in the transport staging area of the Montgomery County Jail on Jan. 15, 2015. At around 11:30 p.m., Guglielmo began knocking on his cell door to try to ask for medical care, according to his attorneys.

The constant banging on the door prompted Sgt. Matthew Snyder to gather corrections officers to go into Guglielmo’s cell, where Snyder struck Guglielmo, according to attorneys.

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