A former US Army Ranger was severely beaten and arrested during an Occupy Oakland protest, suffering a lacerated spleen while being denied immediate treatment. The Californian prison is now facing a lawsuit for its neglect of the injured man.
Army veteran Kayvan Sabeghi, 33, was arrested and jailed in November 2011 during a nonviolent Occupy Oakland protest while he was trying to walk home, refusing to change his direction. A video of the incident shows a line of police in riot gear approaching the young man, with one of the officers proceeding to beat Sabeghi with a nightstick. He was subsequently arrested on suspicion of remaining at the scene of a riot. While incarcerated at the Glenn Dyer Jail, the prison staff refused to help him while he lay on the floor vomiting from his injuries, unable to move and begging for help. Sabeghi eventually went unconscious in his jail cell.
The lawsuit claims that the sheriff’s deputies accused the man of being drunk and having a heroin withdrawal, when in reality he was suffering from the effects of a ruptured spleen. One prison employee checked Sabeghi’s blood pressure and determined he was an alcoholic and a diabetic.
“Later, another County deputy looked into the cell and observed Mr. Sabeghi lying on the floor throwing up. This deputy taunted Sabeghi by stating, ‘Don’t do heroin,’” the lawsuit stated. “He then pointed Mr. Sabeghi out to the other inmate and stated, ‘see this is why you don’t do heroin.’”
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