Elizabethtown, KY – A Hardin County inmate claims through a lawsuit filed in federal court that jail staff violated his First Amendment rights with their insensitivity to his religious diet.

Nathaniel David Hammond, 46, has been, according to court records, repeatedly charged this year and last with felony theft and cold check charges and is awaiting formal sentencing on three counts of felony theft and being a persistent felony offender, which he recently confessed to as part of a plea bargain.

Since being transferred Feb. 14 to Hardin County Detention Center from Meade County’s jail, Hammond claims jail staff, including Jailer Louis Lawson, Operations Manager Alan New, two unidentified booking officers and a chaplain, Larry Vance, have refused his right to practice as an “Orthodox Jew.”

In a March 17 civil complaint filed in Louisville’s Western District of U.S. District Court, Hammond says he returned to active Judaism after a stint being “distant from God.”

When booked, however, Hammond claims he professed no religious preference, so the jail didn’t log him as a Jew.

Through a series of nine requests, Hammond said he asked the jail for a change of religious preference status, which, he said, were ignored.

Complaints, subsequently, were filed by Hammond with New and Vance, but he said no one would grant him a change of religious status, nor the Kosher meals he demanded.

“I’m suffering spiritually, emotionally and physically,” Hammond wrote in his pro se complaint. “Every bit of non-Kosher food I take in is a sin.”

Hammond also claims staff at the jail have, on various occasions, referred to him as “whiny Jew boy” and “kike.”

Because of those alleged words, Hammond said he fears for his safety.

He’s asking a federal judge through his civil complaint to impose punitive damages on the jail staff and allow him to serve his time at another detention facility.

His formal sentencing is scheduled for May 18 in Circuit Court.

Answering the complaint in a formal filing Tuesday, Vance claims immunity from prosecution.

Jailer Louis Lawson would not discuss specifics of Hammond’s suit, but said it’s not uncommon for the jail to serve special meals to inmates for spiritual or medical reasons.

“Last month we served 3,929 special-diet meals,” Lawson said.

Some special meals stem from medical needs. Some are made for vegetarians serving time. Some inmates, Lawson said, are allowed special diets for religious reasons.

Specifically, Lawson noted the jail’s effort throughout the Islamic holy weeks of Ramadan, when meals are served before dawn and after dark only.

Answers to the suit have not been filed by all defendants and no trial date has been set for Hammond’s complaint against the jail.

(Source:  The News Enterprise)