Man Trapped In Cook County Jail For 30 Hours Wants Answers
By Chuck Sudo in News on Jul 11, 2014 7:30PM
File this under “things we completely expected.” The man who spent 30 hours locked in a visitors room at Cook County Jail last weekend has filed papers in Cook County Circuit Court that could eventually lead to a lawsuit.
Attorneys for Farad Polk, 51, filed a petition for discovery Thursday. Polk was at the jail for his weekly visit with son, who has called 26th and California home the past 13 months awaiting trial on a drug charge. Polk’s son was moved to a different area of the jail with which he was unfamiliar and, when instructed by correctional officers to head to the visitors area, made a wrong turn into a room that was being renovated. The concrete door to that room, which was propped open, closed and Polk was trapped inside from 6 p.m. July 5 until shortly after midnight July 7, when he broke off a sprinkler head, triggering a fire alarm that brought out first responders. The jail’s executive director, Cara Smith, said the room in which Polk was trapped was being outfitted with cameras “for better security.”
Polk didn’t have his phone on him and wasn’t wearing a watch. His attorney, Michael Richmond, told the Sun-Times:
“He thought he might die in there,” Richmond said. “He’d lay down on the floor and close his eyes and drift off to sleep and it would refresh him a little bit and clear his mind and he’d attack the problem again.”
Richmond added that Polk was handcuffed while officials verified his story. (Apparently, being locked for more than a day in a room that wasn’t in use, in street clothes, wasn’t enough.) The discovery petition states Polk was “deprived of food, water, bathroom facilities and any contact with the outside world” during the 30-plus hours in the room despite his best efforts to escape.” It requests to inspect and photograph all areas of the jail and depose a representative of the county for questioning.
Smith told the Tribune her team at the jail was working to get to the bottom of Polk’s ordeal. Richmond said his client is home and (possibly hyperbolically) stated he isn’t doing well.
“He spent 30 hours in hell,” Richmond said and added no one from the jail has called to check on him or apologize after Monday’s initial mea culpas.