By BETTY ADAMS
Staff Writer Saturday, May 26, 2007

Now, the 38-year-old Belgrade man is suing Kennebec County and Sheriff Randall Liberty, claiming they failed to keep him safe and to supply him with adequate safety equipment for the job.

Cochran fractured his ankle in the fall on Dec. 2, 2005.

The lawsuit, filed in Kennebec County Superior Court on May 17 by attorney Peter Clifford, charges the defendants with negligence, violation of civil rights, imposing too harsh a punishment, denial of liberty, illegal imprisonment, negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and conspiracy to violate civil rights.

"They had an inmate doing dangerous work on a wet roof and he fell," Clifford said. "They should have had safety equipment and followed OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) regulations."

The lawsuit says the workplace was "unreasonably dangerous" and that defendants failed to follow workplace regulations, train and inspect, and provide adequate scaffolding and guardrail systems.

Clifford said Cochran's injury was "a horrendous fracture that's required multiple surgeries."

A response from the county and the sheriff has yet to be filed with the court, but county Administrator Robert Devlin said Thursday that Cochran was an inmate on a work crew at the Pine Tree Camp in Rome.

A number of people sentenced in Kennebec County spend some and occasionally all of their jail time doing work at the camp.

"He slipped off a low roof, about head-high," Devlin said. "He initially declined an ambulance, and the staff brought him to the hospital where it was discovered he had a fracture."

Devlin said the county paid all Cochran's medical costs related to the accident.

Now that the lawsuit has been filed, however, Devlin said payments would cease.

Cochran was serving a sentence for violating probation in December 2005, according to documents in Kennebec County Superior Court.

Cochran was convicted in 1999 of assault, operating under the influence, operating after suspension and assault, and criminal mischief, all of which occurred Dec. 23, 1991, in Oakland. He was sentenced to 364 days in jail, all but 60 days suspended and one year of probation.

He also was convicted of assault in May 2006 and was sentenced to 120 days for that offense.

Cochran's probation was revoked several times: once for failing to report to a probation officer, once because he violated conditions by using alcohol, and once in November 2004 for being in Grady County, Ga., and getting charged with possessing cocaine.

A current complaint in the Kennebec County Superior Court charges Cochran with failing to pay $125 in attorney's fees for a previous criminal case.

Notice of the lawsuit was delivered to the county's attorney, Peter Marchesi.

Betty Adams -- 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com