McLemore
McLemore
BROWNSTOWN — Jackson County is denying that the county’s sheriff and officials at its jail violated the constitutional rights of an inmate suffering from a mental health crisis who died last year after spending 20 days in solitary confinement.
However, the county acknowledged that staff failed to comply with a policy that requires all inmates to undergo a health evaluation within 14 days of being admitted to the jail.
The inmate, Joshua McLemore, 29, died in August 2021 from multiple organ failure as a result of dehydration and malnutrition after being locked naked in a padded a padded isolation cell at the Jackson County Jail for nearly “every second of every day for almost three straight weeks,” according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in New Albany in April by Melita Ladner, McLemore’s aunt and the court-appointed administrator of his estate.
The lawsuit alleges, among other things, that jail officials and the contractor exhibited “deliberate indifference” to McLemore’s health as it deteriorated and failed to intervene and secure the medical and mental health care he needed.
Due to being in a “constant state of psychosis,” McLemore ate and drank very little while being held at the Jackson County Jail, losing 45 pounds in 20 days, the complaint states.
Jail officials allegedly didn’t notice that McLemore needed medical attention until his condition was “so dire” that Schneck Medical Center did not have the clinical resources to treat him, the lawsuit states. McLemore instead had to be airlifted to a Cincinnati hospital, where he later died.
The lawsuit names Jackson County, Jackson County Sheriff Rick Meyer; Jackson County Jail Commander Chris Everhart; Scott Ferguson, a night shift sergeant at the jail; and Milton Edward Rutan, a nurse at the jail, as defendants.
Private contractor Advanced Correctional Healthcare and its employee Dr. Ronald Everson, who is described in the lawsuit as having “policy making responsibilities” regarding medical care at the jail, also are defendants.
The Jackson County defendants recently responded to the lawsuit, acknowledging that the county was responsible for ensuring that jail inmates received necessary medical and mental health care and that McLemore did not undergo a health evaluation within 14 days of being admitted to the jail, which the county said was required under jail policy.
However, the defendants denied that they deprived McLemore of his constitutional rights or failed to “intervene or secure needed medical or mental health care until ‘it was too late.’ ”
The response claims that none of the Jackson County defenants “breached any constitutional duty owed to McLemore regarding the conditions of confinement or the medical and mental health treatment McLemore was to receive while incarcerated in the Jackson County Jail.”
Attorneys representing the Jackson County defendants further argue in the response that county officials cannot be held individually liable for McLemore’s death because they have “qualified immunity,” which protects government employees from lawsuits if their actions don’t violate clearly established law or constitutional rights.
The recent court filing only responds to allegations against Jackson County and jail officials. Advanced Correctional Healthcare, for its part, responded to the lawsuit last month, denying allegations that it engaged in “unconstitutional customs and practices” at the jail and that the medical care that McLemore received while behind bars “was not dictated or driven by” its policies, customs or systemic issues.
The company also defended the actions of Everson, arguing that he “was not personally involved” in the alleged constitutional violations and that the medical care he provided to McLemore “was reasonable and within the community standard of care,” according to the court filing.
Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, Advanced Correctional Healthcare describes itself on its website as “the nation’s largest jail contract management company,” and claims to manage the medical care of over 34,000 inmates at over 370 correctional facilities in 21 states. The company also provides mental health services at the Bartholomew County Jail.
The civil lawsuit comes after Jackson County Prosecutor Jeffrey Chalfant determined last year that no jail employees were criminally liable for McLemore’s death even though the inmate “most likely died due to a prolonged lack of attention” by jail staff, according to a 12-page report by Chalfant that concluded a nine-month investigation.
The lawsuit is not first one filed in the county following the death of an inmate at the Jackson County Jail.
In 2006, the mother of an inmate who died of a heart attack at the Jackson County Jail filed a federal lawsuit against Advanced Correctional Healthcare and county officials, alleging that they failed to provide adequate care when her son complained of chest pains and other symptoms at least twice before his death, The Seymour Tribune reported at the time.
The lawsuit also claimed that the county’s use of Advanced Correctional Healthcare to reduce the costs of caring for inmates contributed to the inmates death by limiting access to doctor care and treatment.
An investigation by Indiana State Police found no criminal wrongdoing in the inmate’s death, though a Jackson County prosecutor who reviewed the investigation said at the time that he believed that jail employees were not adequately trained by the company and that ambiguities in its protocol sheets made them hard to understand and implement properly.
That case was later settled out of court.
Several Jackson County officials also are currently facing a separate lawsuit in federal court over the death of another inmate less than a month before McLemore died.
The family of Ta’Neasha Chappell, 23, of Louisville, Kentucky, filed a lawsuit against several Jackson County Jail officials, alleging that they failed to provide her with “prompt and adequate” medical care after she repeatedly vomited blood.
Chappell died at Scheck Medical Center in July 2021 while in the custody of the Jackson County Jail.
That case was still pending in federal court as of Friday morning.
