Otter Tail County will pay a former inmate who was deprived of food, water and medical care $200,000 and will change several policies as part of a settlement agreement.

Ramsey Kettle, the ACLU of Minnesota and co-counsel Norton Rose Fulbright sued the jail and several staff members last year. 

The lawsuit said staff kept Kettle in solitary confinement in an "unsanitary cell covered with human feces" for days. Staff ignored him as he showed increasing signs of physical and mental distress, and denied him food and water until he cleaned his cell.

Kettle is a lifelong Otter Tail County resident and citizen of the White Earth Nation. He's been housed at the jail multiple times, and the lawsuit claimed that staff were aware of his serious mental health condition for years.

The jail also agreed to making multiple changes to policies, including requiring officers to report when another officer withholds food or water as a disciplinary measure. The jail will also require officers to conduct meaningful welfare checks and will no longer be "rolling over" disciplinary segregation time that remains when the person is released from jail to the next time they're held at the jail.

Kettle was held at the jail in February 2024 on charges that were later dropped.

"While the court's decision and this settlement cannot undo the unlawful torture Mr. Kettle endured, they have shone a light on Otter Tail County's failure to respect the human rights of those in their custody," said ACLU-MN Staff Attorney Catherine Ahlin-Halverson. Mr. Kettle's settlement has established policies that will help to protect the rights of everyone in the jail's care in the future and ensure that the withholding of food and water as punishment ends here." 

WCCO has reached out to Otter Tail County for comment.