ST. LOUIS - Nikki R. Neel and Brandi Childers Rodgers filed a federal lawsuit on Dec. 3 in the Eastern District of Missouri against the City of Cape Girardeau, Cecil Ray, Jacob Monteith, Matthew McAlister. Gabriel Yoder and Vernon Norfolk for denial of medical care, deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of suicide, a pattern of unconstitutional conduct and wrongful death.
According to the lawsuit, on May 29, 2020, officers were called in reference to a robbery report at the Pear Tree Inn. Upon arriving on scene, Defendant Cecil Ray made contact with alleged victim Devin M. Nanney, who left the room to go to his car for a cigarette when Nicholas Rodgers entered the passenger side of the car.
Rodgers was not an associate of Nanney, the suit says. Rodgers then punched Nenney in the right eye and allegedly grabbed a pistol from Nanney's holster, then exited the car and ran towards the south entrance of the hotel, the suit says.
Defendants Monteith and McAlister were able to locate Nicholas in the hotel and recognized Nicholas as a possible suspect in a shooting incident that took place the night before and took him into custody. Defendants Monteith and McAlister failed to thoroughly check and search the waistband of Nicholas during intake, allowing him to pull the gun from his pants after being processed into the jail and taken to the medical unit for an inmate uniform, the suit says. Rodgers proceeded to take the weapon and cause a fatal self-inflicted wound to the head.
Neel and Rodgers are represented by Stephen E. Walsh of Poplar Bluff, Mo.
Eastern District Court of Missouri case number 1:21-cv-00173-SNLJ