Man sues after losing five toes in Arapahoe County jail

James Neisler sobbed while recounting how he lost his dog, wife, kids, job, freedom and flesh. Before the stockbroker was able to halt his downward spiral, he had a size-14 left foot and a size-7 right foot.

“I could write 25 country songs about what happened,” said Neisler, who added that his misdemeanor charges somehow put him in an Arapahoe County jail cellblock with the likes of theater shooter James Holmes.

The 47-year-old former financial adviser has sued the Arapahoe County jail and Correctional Healthcare Companies, a private business that provided treatment for the man currently serving a two-year probation sentence for two misdemeanors. Depositions in the case began this week.

Neisler is seeking damages for pain and suffering and emotional distress and for past and future medical expenses. No specific amount of damages has been identified in the federal lawsuit.

“I go into jail with 10 toes and come out with five,” Neisler said while sitting on a bench in Clement Park, not far from his home. He took off a black boot he wears on his right foot and lower leg, slid off a white sock and raised his stump foot. “That’s what I got left.”

Neisler said he was married with two children and was a top-performing financial adviser when his life began spiraling Dec. 21, 2012, the day his dog Zoe, an Australian shepherd/malamute mix, died. At the burial an argument ensued, and before it was over Neisler’s wife filed domestic violence charges against Neisler. He later was arrested for drunken driving after he was caught sleeping in the driver’s seat of his car.

Neisler went to jail for the first time in his life and enrolled in a work-release program June 17 this year.

The diabetic’s feet became swollen. Nurse practitioner Ron Waits ordered him not to stand for more than two hours, his lawsuit says. But even though they knew his restrictions, his supervisors required him to work four hours straight lugging 50-pound bags of flour batter and other kitchen supplies in ill-fitting, steel-toed shoes, the lawsuit says.

Neisler quickly got blisters, which broke. He wrote a series of letters called “kites” describing his worsening condition and pleading for medical treatment.

“My right big toe is bleeding, oozing and twice the size of my left big toe,” he wrote Aug. 12. Two days later, he wrote: “my toe is literally rotting now and smells awful. … I’m begging to be taken to a hospital or wound care clinic for it to be looked at … please take me.” The next day, Waits noted that Neisler had “necrotic tissue” with “malodor.”

Neisler said he began hiding bloody socks to document his condition. He had nine of them hidden under his mattress.

“I knew it was going south quickly,” he said. “My big toe was like a piece of beef jerky. It was past gangrene, all the way to bone infection.”

On Aug. 17, he was asked to “please be patient … the MD will have our medical clerk make your appointment.” On Aug. 19, his foot was “bleeding profusely.”

He finally was taken to Denver Health Medical Center on Aug. 22 for surgery, the lawsuit says. Following each surgery he was taken to an unsanitary jail unit and his toes continued decaying, he said. First half of his big toe was taken. Then the rest of his big toe. Then another toe. Then all five toes. Over the course of the next several weeks, nearly half of his right foot was gone.

What he worries most about now is how much of his future is wrecked because of his disability. He can no longer play hoops with a son who is a basketball player or run long distance like he used to do with his daughter, who runs cross country.

“I have to laugh, because otherwise I’d be crying all the time.”

Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, denverpost.com/coldcases or twitter.com/kirkmitchell