A man became paralyzed after prison guards tackled him. Now, he will be paid $17.5 million.

Seth Fletcher, 21, suffered a spinal cord injury when state prison guards tackled, handcuffed and dropped him at Chillicothe Correctional Institution. He is now paralyzed from the chest down.
Seth Fletcher, 21, suffered a spinal cord injury when state prison guards tackled, handcuffed and dropped him at Chillicothe Correctional Institution. He is now paralyzed from the chest down.

The state of Ohio will pay $17.5 million to a 21-year-old man who suffered a spinal cord injury when state prison guards tackled, handcuffed and dropped him at Chillicothe Correctional Institution, the man's attorney said Monday.

Seth Fletcher is now paralyzed from the chest down.

On April 2, 2020, Fletcher was knocked to the ground and complained that he couldn't feel or move his legs. Guards failed to take his complaint seriously and dropped him multiple times after the initial injury. When he was unable to get himself a drink of water, guards poured water into his mouth and up his nose, according to the Ohio Highway Patrol report.

Text messages reveal one guard, Garrett Osbon, bragged about it. Fletcher's attorney released copies of Osbon's text messages he obtained through the lawsuit.

Osbon's bragging in text messages continued after Fletcher was taken to Ohio State Medical Center: "the dude I broke his nose is now paralyzed with a broken neck, and they say his face looks like he had been dropped and dragged through concrete, LMAO" and "It feels good to know that I played a small part in paralyzing a cho, LMAO."

"Cho" or "cho mo" is prison slang for child molester. Fletcher was sentenced in Fulton County to two years in prison for pandering sexually-oriented material involving minors. Fletcher's attorneys said the offense involved a consensually made videotape with his girlfriend, who was a couple years younger than the then-18-year-old Fletcher.

Fletcher filed his federal civil rights case against two dozen Ohio prison security and nursing staff members on April 15, 2020.

A year after Fletcher was injured, the state prisons department fired three people and gave a one-day working suspension to two staff members involved. Additionally, six others resigned and one lieutenant took medical retirement.

Fletcher has quadriplegia and is confined to a wheelchair.

April Jacobsen, Fletcher's mother, said she needs money to remodel her house to make it wheelchair accessible and provide care for her son for the rest of his life.

This story will be updated.

Laura Bischoff is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio. Follow Laura on Twitter: @lbischoff.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio to pay man $17.5 million after he was paralyzed in prison clash