U.S. appellate court revives suit on Faulkner County jail

A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday reinstated a lawsuit alleging that Faulkner County jail employees intentionally refused to give a Conway man his medicine to prevent epileptic seizures during his three-night incarceration in 2012.

U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright threw out the lawsuit on Oct. 20, after granting summary judgment -- a finding based on legal arguments alone -- to all the defendants. They included the county, Sheriff Andy Shock, Maj. John Randall, Detention Capt. Lloyd Vincent and 10 county officers identified only as John Does because their names weren't known on the day the lawsuit was filed.

A month before dismissing the lawsuit, Wright had denied as "untimely and futile" the plaintiff's request to amend the lawsuit to add the names of eight jail employees, the jail doctor and two nurses, whose names he said he learned as a result of the lawsuit discovery process.

Russell Jones, a control engineer at the Arkansas Educational Telecommunications Network, filed the lawsuit on Oct. 4, 2013, alleging that jailers were deliberately indifferent to his serious medical needs after he was jailed on the night of Oct. 12, 2012. He was arrested after being pulled over in the parking lot of his apartment complex, in response to a call from someone who suspected he was driving while intoxicated.

The lawsuit sought compensatory and punitive damages, a declaration that the defendants had violated Jones' civil rights and a permanent injunction requiring the county to adopt appropriate polices for hiring and supervising jailers.

The 8th Circuit panel, based in St. Louis, agreed with Wright's decision to drop Shock, Randall, Vincent and the county as defendants, citing "undisputed evidence" that the men weren't personally involved in the alleged deprivation of rights, and saying there was no proof of an official policy or practice that would demonstrate inadequate training and supervision.

However, the panel reversed Wright for refusing to permit Jones to amend the suit and for then dismissing the John Doe defendants.

The panel wrote, "The allegations in the amended complaint, taken as true, demonstrate that the defendants who were on duty at the jail on the weekend of Oct. 12-15, 2012 -- who were identified in the proposed amended complaint, and whose involvement in the alleged incidents was detailed in an attachment to the complaint -- were aware of Jones' need for his medication, and witnessed his seizures, yet intentionally interfered with treatment by withholding the medication and refusing to provide emergency medical care."

The panel ordered the lawsuit reinstated and directed Wright to allow Jones to amend it, to identify the unnamed defendants.

The lawsuit says Jones told the arresting officer that he was epileptic and showed the officer both of his medications. At the jail, it says, he "emphatically" told deputies he was epileptic, was taking two prescribed medications, and that it was imperative that he take both twice daily to prevent seizures. It says he also gave them the name of his doctor so they could verify the prescription.

But despite his pleas, deputies and other jail officials "blatantly refused" to contact the doctor or pharmacy, or give him his medication, the lawsuit contends. It says they responded to the "multiple seizures" he suffered as a result by eventually strapping him to a restraint chair.

Even while appearing in court via satellite on Oct. 15, 2012, Jones was restrained in a wheelchair and showed bruises and cuts as a result of the repeated seizures, it says, noting that a friend of Jones who was in the courtroom and saw the video immediately went to the jail and got him, and took him to Conway Regional Hospital. There, it says, physicians "determined that his injuries were the result of trauma caused by repeated seizures," which could have been prevented with medication, and confirmed that during the seizures, Jones had gone into renal failure and his organs had begun to shut down.

The lawsuit was filed on Jones' behalf by attorney Ryan Allen of North Little Rock.

The appellate panel consisted of U.S. Circuit Judges Roger Wollman of Sioux Falls, S.D., Lavenski Smith of Little Rock and Duane Benton of Kansas City, Mo.

Metro on 07/23/2015

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