Judge Upholds $38 Million Judgment In Boot Camp Case

[TexasStooge]

FORT WORTH, Texas -- A judge has ordered the owners of a boot camp to pay $38 million to the family of a teenage inmate who died.

A jury awarded the money to the family of Bryan Alexander, 18, in August, but Correctional Services Corporation motioned to reduce the award. CSC has said it has $35 million worth of liability insurance, but it's in a fight with its insurance carrier, which is disclaiming coverage.

Alexander was serving a six-month sentence in 2001 at the Mansfield facility when he complained of feeling weak and coughing up blood. Days passed before he was taken to a Fort Worth hospital, where he died two days later from a rare, penicillin-resistant form of pneumonia. The boot camp closed six months later.

Camp nurse Knyvett Reyes was convicted this summer of criminally negligent homicide and sentenced to four years of community supervision.