Julie Downs hopes that nobody else dies the way in which her son, Brian, did – vomiting on a jail cell ground as Morgan County Jail personnel watched.
Morgan County is being walloped with a $6 million settlement in federal court docket for negligence within the 2022 heroin withdrawal demise of 40-year-old Brian Downs. Events within the case have reached settlement and it’s anticipated to quickly be signed by a decide.
Julie Downs advised Illinois Instances she hopes the financial settlement will function an impetus for the sheriff’s division to make modifications. To date, neither she nor her lawyer, Richard Frazier, see any purpose to be inspired.
“To one of the best of our information, nobody inside the sheriff’s division has been fired or disciplined due to this demise, and we’re unaware of any modifications of coverage made there since Brian’s demise,” Frazier stated.
Morgan County Sheriff Mike Carmody advised IT that there have been no personnel modifications made on account of this incident. However he stated the division has supplied jail personnel with extra coaching to higher consider whether or not an inmate wants medical care.
“How a lot coaching does somebody have to know when somebody vomits blood greater than 50 instances they should go to the hospital?” Frazier stated in response.
In accordance with the lawsuit, on the time Brian was arrested, his “conduct was erratic and he was disoriented.” Officers acknowledged that he was having extreme heroin withdrawal and Brian was taken to Jacksonville Memorial Hospital, the place a blood check confirmed the presence of heroin in his system.
He was handled with the anti-anxiety drug Ativan. On orders of the correctional officers – and towards medical recommendation – Brian was discharged from the hospital and returned to the jail, the lawsuit states.
Scott Reeder
Julie Downs will obtain a $6 million settlement from the Morgan County Jail on account of her son’s demise whereas in custody. She stated she hoped submitting the lawsuit would result in the sheriff’s division making modifications, however that doesn’t appear to be the case.
Frazier stated the correctional officers had been instructed by the medical professionals to return Brian to the emergency division if his confusion elevated or his vomiting turned extra persistent.
On the time, Morgan County retained Superior Correctional Healthcare, a Tennessee-based company, to supply distant medical course inside the jail.
“The county pays $53,000 a yr for this,” Frazier stated. “Something that is completed exterior of the detention facility, they’ve a cap per yr of $13,000 earlier than the county has to pay out of their very own pocket. If they might have despatched Brian again to the emergency room, which they need to have, it most likely would have hit the $13,000 restrict. … Two correctional officers stated they had been ordered to not give this inmate any additional medical care.”
Frazier stated he discovered of those orders from an investigation carried out by the Illinois State Police of Downs’ demise whereas in custody. No felony expenses had been filed on account of the investigation.
Carmody stated the county has since discontinued its relationship with ACH however he stopped in need of blaming the corporate for Downs’ demise.
“At this level, you already know, there is no sense in making an attempt to determine who’s in charge,” he stated.
However Frazier stated now’s the time to find out who’s accountable.
“In the event you simply paid $6 million, you higher do an analysis to verify it would not occur once more,” he stated.
Carmody denied that the potential price to Morgan County was in any manner a think about Downs not being transported again to the hospital.
He famous that jail personnel had been making ready to take Downs to the hospital when he died.
“I’ve seen prior to now the place persons are very dangerous, they usually worsen, after which they get higher. And this simply wasn’t a type of instances,” Carmody stated.
Whereas a settlement has been reached with Morgan County and its insurance coverage provider, Frazier stated the lawsuit is pending towards Superior Correctional Heathcare.
“This nurse practitioner, who’s employed by ACH, … her job was to (remotely) supervise the inmates’ medical care. How may she present any medical take care of an inmate when she would not have (in-person) expertise in doing that? She’s the one who despatched him to the hospital when he was first arrested, when he was having signs. She did not even trouble to get his discharge directions to guarantee that they had been adopted up on,” Frazier alleged.
He added he has no proof that ACH maintained a medical chart on Downs.
ACH CEO Jessica Younger didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from IT.
Julie Downs stated she believes that her son was considered with indifference by the jail workers as a result of he was an addict. She stated they watched him vomit greater than 100 instances over three days.
A video recording of Downs retching in his cell because the county nurse enters paints a heart-rending picture.
“She walks in his cell, and there is puke all around the ground. It appears like blood on the ground from his vomit. She steps over it and nearly slips and falls in it to take his blood stress,” Frazier stated. “It is unbelievable. Clearly, she by no means learn the discharge directions or she did not care or she was instructed to not take him again to the hospital. She was an RN.”
In accordance with Jacksonville police stories, Brian was arrested April 22 on expenses of possession of a managed substance and resisting or obstructing a peace officer.
In a 2023 interview, Julie stated as a result of Brian lacked dental insurance coverage, he did not go to the dentist and his enamel turned contaminated and painful.
“He began borrowing ache tablets from associates, and we expect that’s when he received hooked on opioids,” she stated. From there, she stated he progressed to heroin.
Julie stated Brian did no less than three stints at drug rehabilitation facilities. She contends his path to sobriety was hampered by not having medical health insurance.
“He did one stint in Jacksonville. He did twice in Bloomington. And people had been each for heroin. I do know that he tried to get into rehab many extra instances. And that could be a battle. If you do not have insurance coverage, Lord enable you to, as a result of they don’t take you.”
After every time in rehab, he would expertise a interval of sobriety, she stated.
On April 25, 2022, Brian collapsed within the jail’s reserving space. A Morgan County sheriff’s deputy requested guards why Brian wasn’t receiving medical care, in response to the lawsuit.
“The jail workers knowledgeable him that they might not get an off-duty correctional officer to return to the jail to move Brian to the hospital,” the lawsuit contends. The deputy “expressed alarm at this excuse” and ready to move Brian to the hospital in his patrol automobile.
However earlier than that might occur, Brian died on the ground of the jail. An post-mortem later decided that he had died from dehydration and septic shock on account of a bowel obstruction amid opioid withdrawal syndrome.
“I am simply sick about this,” Julie advised IT in an interview this month. “It took us a really very long time to even contemplate (the settlement) as a result of our thought was simply to take it to court docket and let all people understand how issues fell aside. What we wish, we will not have – we wish my son.”
She added she filed the lawsuit to stop this from taking place to another person’s little one.
“And apparently it should, as a result of nothing goes to alter,” she stated.
Scott Reeder, a workers author for Illinois Instances, may be reached at [email protected].
