18
Wednesday, December 28, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Sheriff’s office settles with family of dead jail inmate
The Deschutes County
Sheriff’s Office last week
settled a lawsuit filed by the
family of a man who died
in custody at the Deschutes
County Jail. The $15 million
suit was settled for $1.025
million.
Edwin Burl Mays, III,
died of a drug overdose in
December 2014 while incar-
cerated at the Deschutes
County Jail.
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.
A County statement noted
that the agreement “is not an
acknowledgement of liabil-
ity or wrongdoing — a fact
confirmed by the Oregon
Department of Justice’s
investigation and also by the
terms of the settlement agree-
ment, which provides that the
County and the individual
defendants expressly deny
responsibility for the unfor-
tunate death of Mr. Mays.”
The lawsuit contended
that deputies were negligent
in handling Mays’ condition.
Surveillance video indicated
that some deputies mocked
Mays.
Sheriff Shane Nelson
said: “…The Oregon
Department of Justice inves-
tigation found that the depu-
ties performed their duties
under their legal obligations
to Mr. Mays, and this settle-
ment is not an admission of
responsibility for the meth-
amphetamine overdose by
Mr. Mays. The unprofes-
sional conduct by some of
the deputies on December
14, 2014 was dealt with by
the Sheriff’s Office in dis-
ciplinary actions in April of
2015.”
Nelson said that the
Sheriff’s Office has taken
several steps since December
2014, adding full-time nurses
for 24-hour/seven-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,” Nelson said. “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 nalox-
one, an antidote for opioid
overdoses, to kits for correc-
tions and patrol deputies, rec-
ognizing the increasing use
of opioid abuse in Central
Oregon.”
The Sheriff’s Office has
also added additional auto-
mated external defibrillators
to the jail and have upgraded
the emergency bags in the
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,” Nelson noted.
…The Oregon
Department of Justice
investigation found that
the deputies performed
their duties under their
legal obligations to
Mr. Mays, and this
settlement is not
an admission of
responsibility...
— Sheriff Shane Nelson
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