A jury must decide whether two Berks County deputy sheriffs showed "deliberate indifference" when they allegedly turned up the music in a transport van to drown out the complaints of an inmate who repeatedly complained he was freezing and was later found unconscious and suffering frostbite.
In his 17-page opinion in Strauss v. County of Berks , U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry S. Perkin concluded that the two deputies are not entitled to qualified immunity because they were aware of the sub-freezing conditions and made no efforts to check on the inmate during a trip of more than two hours.
