St. Joseph County should not be forced to pay a $29 million judgment to the family of a man allegedly beaten to death in the county jail a decade ago, a federal judge has ruled.

A jury in 2002 determined that former jail guards Erich Dieter and Michael Sawdon must pay that amount in compensatory damages, plus another $27.5 million in punitive damages, to the estate of the late Christopher Moreland.

Dieter’s and Sawdon’s wages from subsequent jobs have been garnished to help pay the judgment, but the men don’t earn enough income to pay much of the amount, said the Moreland family’s Niles-based attorney, Sean Drew.

Moreland, then 30, died in the county jail Oct. 25, 1997, several hours after being arrested by Mishawaka police on a drunken driving charge. The cause of death was bleeding on the brain from a subdural hematoma, according to an autopsy.

U.S. District Judge Philip P. Simon, while noting that Dieter and Sawdon beat Moreland "mercilessly," said the county was not to blame.

Dieter and Sawdon were acquitted of federal criminal charges in 2000. Then-county Prosecutor Chris Toth declined to pursue state criminal charges.

A third county deputy involved, Dieter’a and Sawdon’s supervisor, Paul Moffa, was not criminally charged in state or federal court. In the same federal civil rights trial with Dieter and Sawdon, the jury was deadlocked on Moffa’s liability. A second federal civil trial cleared Moffa, who remains with the department as head of courthouse security.

In seeking to force the county to pay Dieter’s and Sawdon’s liability, the Moreland family’s attorneys have pointed to a state law change that took effect July 1, 2003 — about a year after the jury awarded the damages.

Historically, public entities could choose whether to pay damages caused by their employees in federal civil rights lawsuits such as this one. But under the new law, municipalities that defend employees against tort claims or lawsuits, or have the opportunity to do so, must pay any damages the employees cause.

The county paid attorney Martin Kus to defend Dieter and Sawdon through their civil trial but refused to fund their legal defense as they appealed the jury verdict (and lost).

The Morelands’ attorneys argued this meant that the county "had the opportunity" to defend Dieter and Sawdon even after the state law changed.

But Simon called such a reading of the law "implausible."

"By reading the statute to apply to any situation where the public entity had the ‘opportunity to defend,’ regardless of whether it specifically chooses to take on the defense, the court would open the floodgates to ongoing state indemnity obligations."

The Moreland family has received an out-of-court settlement from Memorial Home Care Inc., whose employee was the jail nurse on duty the night Moreland died.

Drew vowed to appeal Simon’s ruling to the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

"I’ve worked on this for 10 years and this case is extremely important to the Moreland family," Drew said. "We’re going to continue to work on it and determine if the three judges on the Court of Appeals feel differently (than Simon)."

County sheriff’s department attorney A. Howard Williams, who successfully won a dismissal for then-sheriff Joseph Speybroeck in the case, said the county would be "hard-pressed" to come up with $29 million for the Moreland family, but could do it by taking out a performance bond.

But Williams said he is "absolutely confident "that won’t be necessary.

"I believe (Simon’s ruling) will withstand the scrutiny of any appellate court," he said.