A man is suing over claims he was inadvertently imprisoned in a room at the county jail and spent more than 30 hours attempting to escape.
Farad Polk filed a complaint of discovery in chancery July 10 in the Cook County Circuit Court against the County of Cook, alleging false imprisonment.
According to the complaint, Polk went to visit his son at the county-run jail on South California Avenue in Chicago on July 5, 2012, when he followed the directions of various correctional officers to a room where he expected to meet his son, but instead found the room empty.
Polk claims the door shut behind him and locked automatically. He alleges there was no way to open the door from the inside and way to communicate with others, leading him to spend the next 30 hours attempting to escape the room, injuring his thumb in the process, until he was able to activate the fire sprinkler system which brought the fire department to the flooding room.
Polk is seeking court orders to require the county to allow him and his attorney to the scene of the incident, as well as the submission of surveillance video. He is being represented in the case by attorneys at Heller & Richmond Ltd. in Chicago.
Cook County Circuit Court Case No. 2014CH11363.
This is a report on a civil lawsuit filed in the Cook County Circuit Court. The details in this report come from an original complaint filed by a plaintiff. Please note, a complaint represents an accusation by a private individual, not the government. It is not an indication of guilt, and it only represents one side of the story.