The American Civil Liberties Union alleges in a lawsuit that a Missouri judge illegally jailed three relatives after a custody hearing, resulting in one of them, a diabetic man, undergoing a partial foot amputation.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the lawsuit was filed Monday in federal court in Springfield. It says Texas County Associate Judge Douglas Gaston ordered grandparents Norma and Arthur Rogers and their son-in-law, William Hale, to jail for drug testing after they appeared before him without attorneys in June 2017.
Hale and Norma Rogers spent eight hours in jail, most of the time cuffed to a metal bench. The suit says Gaston accused Arthur Rogers of giving him a "look" and ordered him held overnight. The suit says Hale's cuff caused an ulcer, which led to an infection and amputation.
Gaston said in an email that he couldn't comment.
