Inmate: Metro jail won't return prosthetic leg

By Kate Howard 

THE TENNESSEAN

August 6, 2009

Jerry Ray Brock is looking for some missing property he says he had to leave behind at the Davidson County Sheriff's Office, namely his brand-new prosthetic leg.

Brock wanted to take it with him for the rest of his sentence at the Tennessee Department of Correction. But in a lawsuit filed today in Davidson County Circuit Court, Brock says a jail guard told him the leg was a medical device he wasn't allowed to take with him.

Brock, who has a history in Nashville of burglary offenses, was awaiting a transfer to state prison at the Nashville jail last August. He says the guard that refused to let him take his new prosthetic limb and cane wouldn't give him his name, so the suit is filed against John Doe and the sheriff's office.

When Brock got to state prison, he said a corrections officer showed him a list of banned materials that did not include prosthetics. He wrote to Metro government's claims office asking that they return the leg, according to the lawsuit he filed himself. He says he never heard back.

In the meantime, he was walking on a broken prosthetic that he says the state unsuccessfully tried to get fixed for him, but the foot sometimes still fell off.

He came to jail using the broken leg and says he asked the guard if he could swap them out if he could only take what he was wearing. He said he was denied.

Rick Gentry, spokesman for the sheriff's office, referred question to Metro's legal department. Calls to the Tennessee Department of Correction have not yet been returned. According to the lawsuit, Brock is currently being housed in Charles Bass Correctional Complex in Nashville and is still waiting to get his leg back. He has asked for $18,000 reimbursement for the prosthetic, as well as $500,000 in punitive damages.