[NJ] TRENTON - A man sentenced to 70 years in prison for murder has filed a lawsuit accusing Mercer County sheriff's officers of using excessive force when subduing him after he punched his defense attorney in the face during a court hearing.Randy Washington, 36, was recently sentenced earlier this month to 70 years in prison for killing Silas Johnson in 2014 under a Route 1 overpass.
In the lawsuit filed three days before he was sentenced, Washington admits to punching his now-former attorney in the face in June, but claims he made no other threatening movements towards her.
"I hit my attorney, but when I hit her, I did not advance toward her, I just waited for the sheriff to come handcuff me," Washington wrote in the suit.
The incident happened just after closing arguments in the trial ended and the jury was dismissed for deliberations.
He claims that the sheriff's officers tackled him onto a table and later slammed him to the ground. One of the officer's knees came down on his wrist, breaking his hand, he alleges in the lawsuit.
Washington claims that once back at the jail, officers refused to send him to the hospital after telling the officers his hand was broken.
On July 6, a week after the incident, an X-ray revealed it was broken. He had a second X-ray on July 25, and had surgery Aug. 7, according to the lawsuit.
Washington claims that he received no medical treatment from the jail between July 6 and July 25, after the break in his hand was originally discovered.
Washington is seeking $1 million in compensation.
In addition to Johnson's killing, Washington is also accused of the July 2014 killing of George Jamison, 43, at a Trenton bus stop.
The Jamison killing, for which Washington has yet to be tried, sparked a four-month crime spree in which Washington committed several armed robberies before he was jugged
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
for Johnson's killing, Mercer County prosecutors have said.