Inmate gets $16K after claiming he was pepper-sprayed, wheelchair was stolen

Robert L. Small suffered a 1997 spinal injury.

CAMDEN -- A paraplegic Camden County jail inmate who argued in court papers that he was unjustly pepper sprayed and had his wheelchair taken away on numerous occasions has settled his claims for $16,000, according to NJ Civil Settlements.

Robert L. Small, whose medical condition stems from a 1997 spine injury, received $9,000 payment back in March for a wheelchair-related incident on top of $7,000 in 2011 for being pepper sprayed by a corrections officer.

"He has anger issues. He acts out," said J. Phillip Kirchner of the Flaster-Greenberg law firm in Cherry Hill, who was appointed pro-bono counsel by the court and no longer represents Hill.

Kirchner added that many of Hill's problems stemmed from "prison guards improperly retaliating" to his behavior. Hill remains behind bars at the Camden County Correctional Facility.

As a pre-trial detainee at the Camden County Correctional Facility, Small claimed in a 2008 filing that his wheelchair was first taken from him and he was "forcibly ejected" from it during an Aug. 16, 2004 incident.

In two June 2005 incidents -- which would eventually be reinstated by an appeals court -- Small claims to have been issued a "substandard" wheel chair plus having his own taken away, leaving him bedridden for five days. He also claims to have been died medical treatment on numerous occasions.

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Kirchner could not immediately recall why Hill was behind bars. According to court documents, Hill was previously convicted by a jury of attempted murder following the 2005 stabbing in Pennsauken of an acquaintance that left the victim "covered in blood from head to toe."

In a 2010 filing that names corrections officer Joseph Whittick as a defendant, Small claims to have been sprayed in the face with pepper spray after getting into an argument over a grievance form.

"By all accounts, [Small] was immobilized in his wheelchair and locked behind a metal door prior to [Whittick] opening the door and pepper spraying him," the filing reads, adding that another corrections officer testified that Hill was backing away with his hands raised when the encounter unfolded.

According to NJ Civil Settlements, Small's claims were all dismissed in 2010 except ones stemming from the pepper spray incident. In 2013, an appeals court reinstated his claims stemming from the June 18, 2005 use of a prison-issued wheelchair and the June 28, 2005 incident where he was left bedridden for five days.