Coles Co., Ill. (ECWd) –
SEEKING CLASS MEMBERS FOR CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT
REDWOOD LAW OFFICE and LADUZINSKY & ASSOCIATES, P.C. are proud to announce that a Class Action Lawsuit has been filed against KENT MARTIN, Sheriff of Coles County, individual Coles County Correctional Officers and Coles County for maintaining a county jail with inhumane conditions in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
The Class Action Lawsuit, entitled Elijah Burch on behalf of himself and all similarly situated former and current pre-trial detainees housed at the Coles County Jail vs Kent Martin, et al, filed in the Federal District Court for the Central District of Illinois alleges that Mr. Burch and a large class of other people who were detained in the Coles County Jail in years 2023, 2024 and 2025 were subjected to inhumane conditions of confinement by being locked into cells that have no toilet and no drinking water. The Complaint further alleges that, in many circumstances, these people were denied the use of a toilet and/or denied drinking water by various Correctional Officers and that they were punished for pounding on the door trying to get some physical relief for their needs. The Complaint further alleges that Defendant Sheriff Kent Martin had and has a custom or policy of denying basic human needs of use of a toilet and providing drinking water to pretrial detainees housed in these particular cells, which are called “medical observation” cells, because this denial of basic human needs has gone on for so long that he knows or should know it is going on and he either condones it or turns a blind eye.
The Members of the Class of Plaintiffs are all pre-trial detainees. This means that these are people who have not yet been convicted of the crime that they are being held in jail for and are waiting for trial. In other words, these pre-trial detainees are Presumed Innocent until proven guilty in a court of law and, as innocent citizens, they cannot be punished but must be treated in an objectively reasonable manner during this pre-trial confinement. Many of the Class Members who have already complained to these attorneys about their treatment at Coles County Jail, have been ignored for so long that they were forced to use the floor as a toilet because they could simply not hold it that long. The Lawsuit further alleges that the pre-trial detainees who were left with only the floor to use as a toilet, were not given toilet paper, cleaning supplies or clean clothing after having soiled themselves and were forced to live in these unsanitary conditions.
IF YOU, OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW, HAS BEEN HELD IN A CELL IN THE COLES COUNTY JAIL IN 2023, 2024 OR 2025, AND WAS IGNORED WHEN THEY ASKED OR BEGGED TO USE THE TOILET OR TO GET A DRINK OF WATER, PLEASE CONTACT REDWOOD LAW OFFICE. 217-469-9194 OR 217-493-8718.
IF THIS LAWSUIT IS SUCCESSFUL, EACH CLASS MEMBER MAY BE ENTITLED TO FINANCIAL COMPENSATION. YOU WILL ALSO EXPERIENCE PRIDE IN BEING PART OF AN EFFORT TO FORCE COLES COUNTY TO STOP USING THESE INHUMANE CELLS FOR CONFINEMENT OF THE PEOPLE OF COLES COUNTY.
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