Deschutes County paying $1 million settlement in jail death

Deschutes County announced Thursday it had agreed to pay just over $1 million to settle a $16.6 million federal lawsuit filed by the family of a county jail inmate who died of a drug overdose two years ago.

While there was never a dispute that the December 2014 death of Edwin Mays III at the jail was caused by an overdose of methamphetamine he had swallowed after his arrest, events surrounding his death sparked a major scandal on the release of video that showed jail staff joking and mocking Mays before he died.

In September, the lawsuit amount had been revised upward to seek $16.6 million, also dropping four defendants and adding two, including then-jail commander, now-Sheriff Shane Nelson.

“The county and its insurance company agreed that the $1,025,000 settlement is in the best interest of all parties in order to avoid a lengthy jury trial,” the county’s brief statement said. “The county will pay $700,000 of the settlement from its Risk Management Fund; the remainder of the settlement will be paid by the county’s insurance company.”

The county went on to say, “This agreement is not an acknowledgement of liability or wrongdoing – a fact confirmed by the Oregon Department of Justice’s investigation and also by the terms of the settlement agreement which provides that the county and the individual defendants expressly deny responsibility for the unfortunate death of Mr. Mays.”

The Mays family’s attorney, Jennifer Coughlin, issued this statement Thursday evening regarding the settlement:

“Deschutes County has just paid what appears to be the largest settlement or verdict against a governmental entity for jail abuse, neglect or death ever in Oregon.

“And yet it continues to avoid responsibility by saying it wasn’t at fault. But they’re paying over a million dollars for a reason: and that reason is because they refused this young man the medical care he needed, and they mocked him and laughed at him for hours while he died a miserable death in their custody.

“Deschutes County is unfortunately being dishonest in saying that they have no fault in this matter; and the truth is that if they had no fault they would not be paying over a million dollars to settle this lawsuit. They are saying that the Department of Justice exonerated these officers; but that’s disingenuous. The Department of Justice decided not to impose criminal charges against these officers.

“That in no way means that the officers did not violate this inmate’s civil rights and fail to provide him proper medical care. They did violate his civil rights, and those are constitutional rights that all citizens have when they are incarcerated and cannot take themselves to a hospital.

“My hope is that correctional officers have learned that it is a much wiser use of taxpayer dollars to simply take inmates who are in medical distress to the hospital rather than allow them to die in custody and pay out big settlements or verdicts.

“The Mays family hopes that in having to pay over $1 million for this young man’s suffering and death, it will bring attention to other cases of abuse and neglect by law enforcement officers,” Coughlin’s statement concluded.

The Mays family offered its own additional statement:

“We would like to thank Jennifer Coughlin for the miracle that was her foresight and courage to walk into the Deschutes County Adult Jail and request the four and a half hour video tape that, to our horror, recorded Little Eddie’s long and painful death, and the inexcusable behavior of the deputies on duty that night.

“We would also like to thank Jennifer Coughlin and Michelle Burrows, our attorneys, for helping us keep the faith for justice for the past two years. Without them, I don’t believe my brother, Little Eddie’s father, would be alive today to see this settlement.

“Finally, the Mays Family is committed to seeing that Little Eddie, and his story, becomes an unwitting but powerful force for reform in our jails, addressing abuse and medical neglect by law enforcement officers, and for fighting methamphetamine use and addiction.”

Nelson, appointed sheriff last year and elected in a hotly contested race last month, issued the following statement:

“I understand the reasons for settling the lawsuit and recognize the uncertainty of a jury trial. This settlement achieves certainty for Deschutes County, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, and the deputies who were involved in the lawsuit.

“As I have previously noted, the Oregon Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation found that the deputies performed their duties under their legal obligations to Mr. Mays and this settlement is not an admission of responsibility for the methamphetamine overdose by Mr. Mays. A link to the DOJ report is below. The unprofessional conduct by some of the deputies on December 14, 2014 was dealt with by the Sheriff’s Office in disciplinary actions in April of 2015.

“My condolences go to the Mays family for the death of their loved one. His overdose death is a reminder of the continuing threat of methamphetamine addiction in our community.

“The Sheriff’s Office has taken the following steps since December 2014.

* We have added full-time nurses for 24 hour/7 days a week staffing in the jail.

* We have entered into an ongoing contract with a local ER physician, who has reviewed Sheriff’s Office policies and procedures for nursing staff and deputies in both the corrections and patrol divisions. We have updated our policies and procedures and continue to consult with the physician regarding on-going medical questions.

* We have purchased AliveLock Monitoring wristbands for use in the jail, which monitor heart rate and O2 saturation for inmates who need close medical attention.

* We have added naloxone, an antidote for opioid overdoses, to kits for corrections and patrol deputies, recognizing the increasing use of opioid abuse in Central Oregon.

* We have added additional automated external defibrillators to the jail and have upgraded the emergency bags in jail.

* We added a medical/mental health section of the jail during the expansion, to increase the capacity and improve the monitoring of at risk inmates.

“As sheriff, my job is to provide Deschutes County the best public safety services we can.

“We will continue to improve and adjust our Sheriff’s Office in striving to achieve this goal. I am proud of the Sheriff’s Office employees who have worked hard implementing the changes listed above.

“Every day, our Sheriff’s Office teammates in the community face challenging situations requiring decisions with serious outcomes and I support them as they perform their sworn duties to proudly serve the citizens of Deschutes.”