Cape pays to settle inmate's lawsuit

Though incarcerated at Jefferson City Correctional Center, John Skinner will receive a check for $1,000 from the city of Cape Girardeau in a lawsuit settlement.

Attorneys for the city say the federal lawsuit, a civil-rights complaint, was completely unfounded, but it became more costly to keep up with the proceedings than to pay a small settlement.

Eric Cunningham, who represents the city, referred to the amount doled out to Skinner as a "nuisance value settlement," meaning the city maintains the lawsuit has no merit but prefers to settle the case rather than continue to fight it for financial reasons.

"It's more expensive to defend a frivolous lawsuit than it is to settle the case," he said.

Al Spradling III, who handled the case for the city's insurance company, said Skinner was so inundating the city's lawyers with paperwork it became impossible to keep up with the case.

According to a brief that Skinner, 23, of Cape Girardeau, wrote and filed himself, the Cape Girardeau Police Department violated his civil rights by subjecting him to an "unreasonable" strip search and unlawfully detaining him, both of which the police department denies ever occurred.

"We did absolutely nothing wrong in the situation," said Cape Girardeau police chief Carl Kinnison.

On Nov. 12, 2002, Skinner called the police to report a robbery. When officers responded to his residence at 1710 N. Sprigg St., Skinner said an unknown assailant had robbed him of a gold chain and $85, according to the police report.

Skinner consented to a search of his residence, upon which police found the missing cash and jewelry under his mattress. Skinner could not offer an explanation for the property being there.

Police also found multiple bottles of alcohol in the residence. They took Skinner into custody, charging him with being a minor in possession of alcohol.

According the police report, Skinner was taken to the municipal jail at the police department, placed in a holding cell while he was processed, and released with a citation.

That's where Skinner alleges an unnamed officer asked him to strip, and when he hesitated, he was told, "Either you can strip yourself, or I can get a few more officers, and we'll do it for you."

Skinner wrote that he complied with the search, but was "humiliated, demeaned, and debased, by this ordeal."

It's not Skinner's first lawsuit against a law enforcement agency.

In 2005, he filed suit against a Department of Corrections staff member alleging mistreatment. The suit was dismissed.

He's filed lawsuits against several local departments, most of them unsuccessful, Spradling said.

"If we arrested someone in the same situation, even him, we'd do it exactly the same way," Kinnison said.

Lawsuits like this one have become a widespread problem across the country and cause legal costs to rise for even legitimate lawsuits by creating time constraints from lawyers handling frivolous cases, Cunningham said.

As far as the settlement Skinner received from the city goes, it could go to pay a debt he owes from a 2003 lawsuit with the state attorney general's office. Skinner was ordered to pay court costs and a $9,220.72 settlement, and was just denied a motion for relief from the judgment on Sept. 19.

Skinner is serving a four-year sentence for forgery.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245