Pittsburgh Independent: “A Pittsburgh man sued ten Allegheny County Jail (ACJ) correctional officers, two former administrators, and the county itself in federal court Wednesday morning alleging a violation of his constitutional rights due to excessive force and a failure to adequately train and supervise staff at the county jail.

According to court documents, Kush Wilkerson, age 29, has been incarcerated at ACJ in pretrial detention since July 5, 2023, after his arrest on felony robbery and aggravated assault charges dating to an incident on December 12, 2022. (Wilkerson was on probation as part of a 2016 guilty plea on kidnapping for ransom charges at the time of his 2023 arrest.)

The lawsuit asserts that correctional officers used excessive force during a July 12, 2023 incident which began after Wilkerson encountered a former cellmate who allegedly performed lewd acts in front of him during a 2021 jail stay related to a simple assault charge.

Wilkerson, believing a separation from contact was in place between him and this individual, became ‘shocked and upset’ upon seeing him and then ‘swatted his former cellmate on the back of the head,’ according to the complaint. He says that approximately 15–30 minutes later a correctional officer led him into a nearby sallyport and tased him as he was being handcuffed. Wilkerson says he was punched and tased again and then attempted to “squeeze through the wicket opening to get back on the pod,” after which point he alleges he was physically assaulted by “approximately 8–10 correctional officers” who kicked and punched him to the point that he lost a dental implant and blacked out multiple times….

A press release from the Abolitionist Law Center announcing Wilkerson’s lawsuit describes Sergeant Hunter Sarver as ‘the main perpetrator of the assault.'”

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