LITTLE ROCK — A federal civil-rights lawsuit filed last year that sought to represent a class of disabled people requiring mentalhealth services from the State Hospital has been dismissed because of the remaining plaintiff’s failure to pursue it.
The lawsuit led U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. to hold an emergency hearing on Dec. 23, after Little Rock attorney Luther Sutter, representing the mother of one of the plaintiffs, a mentally ill man housed temporarily in jail, said the man was in danger of dying if not moved to the State Hospital immediately.
During that hearing, the Pulaski County jail’s health services administrator admitted that Kristian Boyd Smith, then 30, hadn’t been given all the injections of an anti-psychotic drug that he was supposed to be given every four weeks.
Dr. Steve Doman, the hospital’s medical director, testified that he didn’t believe Smith was in imminent danger of death at the jail, but said it was important that Smith receive his missed dose of antipsychotic medication “as soon as possible.”
Doman also testified that Smith wasn’t at the top of a list of jail detainees awaiting transfer to the mental hospital because people above him on the list had “comparable” conditions.
Marshall ultimately didn’t order Smith’s immediate transfer to the hospital, but voiced concern about Smith and others like him receiving proper care in the jail.
Sutter filed a motion to withdraw from the case on March 19, noting that Smith’s mother, Wynona Randolph, had fired his firm, Harrill and Sutter.
Marshall then ordered Randolph to obtain new counsel, but she never did, he said in his order filed Tuesday dismissing the case. The order noted that Randolph’s claims on behalf of her son were the only claims remaining.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 05/24/2012