SALEM, Ore. — An Oregon Department of Corrections officer is suing the state, a former coworker and corrections officials for $7 million after he was attacked with a stun gun.
The civil rights lawsuit filed last week on behalf of Michael Kilgus accuses Coffee Creek Correctional Facility of maintaining a culture of “silence enforced through violence, threats, and hazing,” The Statesman Journal reported.
The lawsuit says Kilgus was tased in the back, left without medical care and that he had a seizure.
Kilgus, a Coffee Creek corrections officer, was training under Antony Ruvalcaba to be on the prison SWAT team in 2018.
Kilgus joined a November 2018 Taser training session and while another member of his group volunteered to be hit with a stun gun, Kilgus said on Facebook that he had been “tased.”
According to the lawsuit, seeing the post threw Ruvalcaba “into a rage.” The staff worked to get Ruvalcaba a Taser, despite him not being a certified Taser instructor. T
They called Kilgus to the firing range and Tased him after Kilgus apologized for the social media post, the suit said.
Corrections spokeswoman Jennifer Black said Ruvalcaba was fired.
“We have zero tolerance for hazing and we do not tolerate the code of silence, she said in a statement. “This behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated by the Oregon Department of Corrections.”
