Nevada is appealing the $4.3 million verdict awarded to a Las Vegas man who claimed he was denied adequate dental treatment while serving time in prison for reportedly setting off Molotov cocktails, according to a story published in the Reno Gazette Journal.
On July 21, the Nevada Attorney General’s Office filed a notice in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, challenging the June U.S. jury award requiring the state's department of corrections to pay the settlement to Nicolai Mork, who was released about four years ago from Stewart Conservation Camp in Nevada.
The award settled Mork’s claims that he was denied treatment for a yearlong bacterial infection in his mouth. Mork claimed the lack of dental treatment caused several teeth to blacken and eventually fall out.
Additionally, the state attorney general filed motions in the U.S. District Court for Nevada requesting either a new trial or for the jury award to be reduced, according to the story.
In Mork’s lawsuit, he claimed that when he complained to prison staff about his mouth, he was told to tough it out and wasn’t offered a dentist until about a week before he was released from prison. It wasn’t until after his release that Mork received what he called adequate dental treatment.
In 2017, Mork, who holds a master’s degree in business from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was arrested after reportedly linking him to at least eight Molotov cocktails that were ignited near homes in the area. No one was injured.
When he was arrested at his Las Vegas home, authorities purportedly recovered nearly 300 pounds of chemicals that could be used to make explosives.
In 2018, Mork accepted a deal, pleading guilty to felony weapons and explosives component charges. He was sentenced to four to 10 years in prison.
