A jury has awarded damages to a northeast Florida man who was beaten by a jail guard as two others watched.
A federal jury on Thursday awarded 53-year-old Marvin Lee Johnson $13,000 in punitive damages after they found the guards at Duval County Jail acted with malicious and sadistic behavior.
Keith Allen Dixon, the guard who beat Johnson, was ordered to pay $10,000; the two who watched were ordered to pay $1,500 each.
The Florida Times-Union reports that Johnson was punched two dozen times in July 2012. He had been asking for medications needed to treat bipolar disorder.
Dixon, who resigned from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office after the incident, pleaded no contest in 2013 to misdemeanor battery.
Johnson is currently in jail on charges of armed robbery and battery.
