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Ohio to pay $17.5 million to inmate paralyzed after takedown

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COLUMBUS — A court filing says the state has agreed to pay $17.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by an Ohio inmate paralyzed during a takedown by prison guards.

Former prisoner Seth Fletcher was serving a two-year sentence at Chillicothe Correctional Institution in southern Ohio in April 2020 when his attorney says he was tackled, handcuffed and dropped by guards.

The 21-year-old Fletcher was left paralyzed from the chest down with a spinal cord injury.

A settlement in Fletcher's federal civil rights lawsuit against the prisons agency was announced last week.

Prisons spokesperson JoEllen Smith said the parties agreed to settle and the terms were being worked out.