IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF LEFLORE COUNTY
STATE OF OKLAHOMA
(1) DEBORAH BAXTER,
as Special Administrators for
the Estate of Gregory Baxter,
PLAINTIFF,
v.
(2) LEFLORE COUNTY DETENTION CENTER PUBLIC TRUST,
(3) RODNEY DERRYBERRY, in his official capacity as Sheriff of LeFlore county,
(4) RICHARD McGEHEE,
(5) GUNNER BENEFIELD,
(6) ASHTON JACKSON,
(7) DENTON GARRISON,
(8) ESTATE OF DANIEL DENTON,
(9) WAYNE SUMMERS,
DEFENDANTS.
CASE NO.: CJ-26-11e
JURY TRIAL REQUESTED
ATTORNEY LIEN CLAIMED
PETITION
Deborah Baxter, as Special Administrator for the Estate of Gregory Baxter, deceased, for this cause of action against the above-named Defendants, states as follows:
I.
PARTIES, JURISDICTION, VENUE
1. Deborah Baxter is the court appointed Special Administrator for the Estate of Gregory Baxter as set forth in LeFlore County District Court, Case No. PB-2023-0100.
2. Upon information and belief, the LeFlore County Detention Center Public Trust (Jail Trust) is a Title 60 public trust that operates the LeFlore County Detention Center (LCDC) and employs those who work at that facility. The Jail Trust is responsible for adopting, implementing, maintaining, and enforcing policies, and conducting training for the employees of the Jail Trust. Upon information and belief, the Jail Trust is responsible for, without limitation, promulgating, creating, implementing and possessing responsibility for all operations at the LCDC, including supervision, staffing, and training. Because Jail Trust’s position is that of final policymaker, the Jail Trust’s acts and omissions constitute the acts and omissions of the county.
3. Upon information and belief, Denton, Garrison, Gunner Bennefield, Wayne Summers and Ashton Jackson are residents of LeFlore County, and were employed by and worked for the Jail Trust at the LCDC during all relevant times as set forth below.
4. Upon information and belief, Daniel Denton was a resident of LeFlore County and was employed by and worked for the Jail Trust at the LCDC during all relevant times as set forth below. Daniel Denton is deceased and his estate is being named as a Defendant in this litigation.
5. Upon information and belief, Richard McGehee is a resident of LeFlore County, and was employed by and worked for the LeFlore County Sheriff’s Department during the relevant time periods.
6. Upon information and belief, Rodney Derryberry is the elected Sheriff of LeFlore County. Sheriff Derryberry is sued in his official capacity. As Sheriff of LeFlore County, Derryberry is responsible for the adoption, promulgation, maintenance, and enforcement of LeFlore County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) policies and practices related to all aspects of the sheriff’s office.
7. The events complained of occurred in LeFlore County, Oklahoma and this Court has general subject matter jurisdiction and venue is proper.
8. This is an action for the deprivation of rights secured by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, actionable pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §1983.
9. Upon information and belief, a preservation letter was sent to the Jail Trust in July of 2023 by the family of Gregory Baxter.
10. At all times discussed herein, Defendants were acting under color and authority of state law, and within the scope of employment.
II.
STATEMENT OF FACTS
11. Estate adopts and incorporates the preceding paragraphs as if fully set forth herein.
A. SYSTEMIC DEFICIENCIES AT THE LCDC
12. There is a longstanding and widespread practice of failing to provide adequate medical and mental health care for inmates at the LCDC.
13. A U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) investigation conducted in 2002 and 2003 pursuant to the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (“CRIPA”), 42
U.S.C. § 1997 castigated LeFlore County for unconstitutional violations of inmates’ civil rights, specifically the right to adequate medical care.
14. According to the DOJ report:
Based on our investigation, and as described more fully below, we conclude that certain conditions at the Jail violate the constitutional rights of inmates. We find that persons confined at the Jail risk serious injury from deficiencies in the following areas: security and protection from harm, access to medical and mental health care, fire safety, environmental health and safety...The provision of medical services to inmates at the Jail is seriously deficient and places inmates at risk of harm. Most fundamentally, the Jail has no on-site medical care provider. In addition, no medical professionals screen inmates for medical concerns or supervise or follow-up on outside medical visits. Further, the Jail fails to maintain any records on the sporadic health care provided to the inmates in its custody...The intake screening process is insufficient to ensure that inmates receive necessary medical care while incarcerated...Detention officers, who themselves have no medical training, determine when, or if, an inmate receives medical attention. This is a significant and unacceptable departure from universally accepted standards of care.
15. Since that time, there have been multiple negative medical outcomes at the LCDC that resulted from deliberate indifference to a serious medical needs including recently:
(a) deliberate indifference in 2020 to the serious medical needs of detoxing Christopher Hetherington, who died from acute ethanol intoxication after battling untreated delirium tremens;
(b) deliberate indifference in 2017 to the obviously emergent health conditions of inmate Elier Hernandez, who died of acute bronchopneumonia and hypertensive atherosclerotic disease;
(c) deliberate indifference in 2014 to the medical needs of Douglas Cook, who died of acute pneumonitis at the LCDC.
16. In August 2022, the DOH cited the Jail Trust for failing to have any written policies. According to the citation, "[w]hen requested the facility administrator failed to provide any policy and/or procedure for review."
17. During that same inspection, the DOH also cited the Jail Trust for having no policies that address sight checks. A DOH review of log books revealed staff failing to perform approximately 75% of the hourly sight checks throughout every category of housing within the facility, including segregated housing.
18. Upon information and belief, the deficiencies identified by the DOH did not start in August 2022, but represent a longstanding and widespread practice of the Jail Trust to operate the LCDC in knowing violation of state law that extended many years prior.
19. A causal connection exists between the violations described by the DOH and DOJ’s investigations and the Jail Trust’s treatment of Gregory. The violations outlined by the DOJ and DOH were, upon information and belief, not reasonably addressed at the time, or ever, and as a consequence Gregory was placed at excessive risk of harm as a result.
20. Upon information and belief, the Jail Trust failed to train its Detention Center staff on how to supervise, monitor, and respond to inmates with serious and complex medical/mental health conditions, including acute suicidal ideation, with deliberate indifference to the consequences. This failure is especially problematic considering that, according to the DOJ, suicide is the leading cause of death in pretrial detention facilities.1
______________________________
1 https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/mlj0019st.pdf (last visited Nov. 4, 2024)
21. Upon information and belief, the Jail Trust has consistently and badly failed to supervise its employees at the LCDC, and failed to assure that the employees are providing adequate supervision and medical monitoring, assessment, and care of inmates, like Gregory, with serious medical needs.
22. Upon information and belief, the Jail Trust has maintained a custom of inadequate medical care for years which poses excessive risks to the health and safety of inmates like Gregory.
23. There is a causal link between the policies and customs described herein, with respect to the inadequate supervision, training, and inadequate provision of medical care to inmates, and Gregory’s constitutional injuries. Upon information and belief, Wayne Summers directed jail staff to avoid doing cell checks due to the disturbance it would case the inmates.
24. Based on the historical notice of deficiencies both before and after Gregory’s tragic death, the Jail Trust knew of, or had constructive knowledge of, excessive risks to the health and safety of inmates like Gregory, but failed to take reasonable measures to alleviate those risks.
25. Moreover, the deliberate indifference to Gregory’s supervision and serious medical needs, as summarized below, was in furtherance of and consistent with customs and/or practices the Jail Trust promulgated, created, implemented, acquiesced in, or for which it possessed ongoing responsibility.
B. ARREST AND DETENTION OF GREGORY BAXTER
26. On the afternoon of October 26, 2022, Gregory Baxter was stopped by Heavener Police Department.
27. He was arrested for outstanding bench warrants from 2004 and 2010, and for speeding, transportation of an open container, failure to stop at a stop sign, and public intoxication. Gregory was taken to the LCDC and booked into the facility.
28. Although Gregory’s history of mental illness and prior expressions of acute suicidal ideation at the LCDC were known to the Jail Trust based on Gregory’s prior admissions, there is no indication LCDC staff used any classification tools before making Gregory’s initial housing assignment.
29. The document titled “Inmate Classification Scale” within Gregory’s records from the LCDC is completely blank.
30. Gregory’s initial booking records are spare. Many records do not include required signatures, and some information is contradictory.
31. Despite being held in excess of fourteen days, there is no indication Gregory received a medical or mental health screening contrary to minimum health standards published by the National Commission on Correctional Healthcare (NCCHC).
32. Upon information and belief, the Jail Trust did not staff anyone at the LCDC who was an LPN/LVN, registered nurse, mid-level provider, or doctor.
B. GREGORY EXPRESSED ACUTE SUICIDAL IDEATION
33. Upon information and belief, LCSO Deputy Richard McGehee was in the LCDC and having continuing interactions with Gregory Baxter.
34. Upon information and belief, the LeFlore County Sheriff’s Office deputies, such as McGehee, were routinely in the jail with authority to manage and oversee the prisoner population.
35. Upon information and belief, McGehee verbally abused Gregory while he was confined at the LCDC in October and November of 2022.
36. Upon information and belief, McGehee provided legal paperwork to Gregory. Based on the nature of the paperwork and Gregory’s reaction, McGehee was exposed to information that would allow him to draw the inference that Gregory’s demeanor had shifted to the point that he was experiencing a mental health crisis.
37. Upon information and belief, McGehee transferred Gregory from the East Dorm to a single cell assignment in Echo pod.
38. At the time of transfer or shortly thereafter, Gregory Baxter communicated acute suicidal ideation to McGehee and other jail staff.
39. After Gregory communicated his acute suicidal ideation to McGehee, either McGehee communicated those statements to jail staff on duty, Garrison, Ashton and Gunner, or alternatively, he failed to disclose the risk of acute suicidal ideation to jail staff.
40. Upon information and belief, Gregory submitted a request for a mental health evaluation but cancelled that visit when told he would be responsible for the cost.
41. Upon information and belief, Gregory resubmitted his request for a mental health evaluation when he became suicidal.
42. Upon information and belief, Gregory was not seen by a mental health provider because the Jail Trust does not make those services available inside the LCDC.
43. Gregory also communicated suicidal ideation and his desire to commit self-harm on previous stays at the LCDC.
44. Upon information and belief, there were no documented site or welfare checks for Gregory.
45. Upon information and belief, despite knowing that Gregory was acutely suicidal, Garrison, Ashton, and Gunner did not adequately monitor or supervise Gregory, and they did not initiate any suicide precautions, or alternatively, McGehee was indifferent to telling anyone about Gregory’s acute suicidal ideation.
46. As a direct and proximate result of jail staff failing to adequately supervise Gregory, or initiate suicide precautions, Gregory was able to commit suicide inside the LCDC.
47. Gregory was not found for several hours despite jail standards mandating welfare checks every hour.
48. When his body was discovered, it was stiff and rigor mortis had set in suggesting that Gregory had died several hours before his body was discovered.
49. Upon information and belief, the failure to perform welfare checks is a longstanding and widespread practice at the LCDC.
50. The failure to appropriately monitor Gregory was the direct result of a lack of supervision and inadequate training by the Jail Trust.
51. On November 21, 2022, several days after his death, the court clerk for LeFlore County District Court filed a letter from Gregory stating that he had been incarcerated for 23 days without being presented to a magistrate or judge.
52. Upon information and belief, the Jail Trust had actual or constructive notice of that its processes for presenting people to a judge or magistrate was constitutionally deficient based on prior incidents, including the case of Dakota Bullard.
C. Baxter is "Released" from the LCDC
53. Baxter’s release records from the LCDC indicate that he was released by Defendant Worley at 8:37 p.m. on November 19, 2022 but there is no reason provided on the release sheet and no indication of why Baxter was being “released.”
54. On or about November 19, 2022, Deborah Baxter (Gregory’s mother) checked on the mobile patrol application; it indicated Gregory Baxter was released from the LCDC at approximately 9:30 a.m. Later that evening, having not seen her son and not hearing from him, Deborah Baxter reached out to the LCDC and was told that the facility was in the middle of an emergency and hung up. Deborah Baxter went back onto the mobile patrol application, and the time had changed from the morning to the evening (9:30 p.m.).
55. On the same day, another family member reached out to a contact at the Sheriff’s office to check on Gregory Baxter’s release and to get information on where he was located.
56. On or about the night, early morning, of November 19-20, LeFlore County Sheriff Officer Casey Lynnville communicated to the family that he would need to visit Gregory Baxter’s family. During that in-person meeting, Lynnville shared that the jail staff found Gregory in the jail and that it was an apparent suicide.
D. Systemic deficiencies at the LCDC caused Gregory’s death
57. The Jail Trust failed to use any classification tools, and failed to adequately classify Gregory Baxter at the time of booking and when he expressed acute suicidal ideation.
58. The failure to classify persons at the LCDC was a longstanding and widespread practice to violate state law in a way the Jail Trust knew would expose people to a substantial risk of serious harm.
59. The Jail Trust failed to supervise or monitor Gregory Baxter at intervals that are reasonably tailored to prevent suicide despite actual knowledge that Baxter was acutely suicidal.
60. The failure to supervise persons at the LCDC was a longstanding and widespread practice to violate state law in a way the Jail Trust knew would expose people to a substantial risk of serious harm.
61. The Jail Trust and the LeFlore County Sheriff's Office failed to appropriately train employees to work in the LCDC with full knowledge that staff and deputies would be working inside of the jail and interacting with inmates.
62. Upon information and belief, the Jail Trust and the LeFlore County Sheriff's Office failed to provide adequate training to recognize acute suicidal ideation, the risks from acute suicidal ideation, the time required for a person to commit suicide in a jail, the leading cause of death inside a jail, or what to do in circumstances where a person expresses acute suicidal ideation, and failed to have policies for facility operations, including managing persons with acute suicidal ideation.
63. Upon information and belief, the Defendant detention officers working at the LCDC appreciated the apparent suicide risk concerning Gregory, but failed to conduct appropriate site checks, failed to appropriately document supervision of Gregory, and failed to appropriately classify Gregory.
64. Upon information and belief, no policies were changed, no person was disciplined, and no training changes were made in response to the death of Gregory or the many other deaths that occurred prior and since Mr. Baxter.
III.
STATEMENT OF CLAIMS
65. Estate adopts and incorporates the preceding paragraphs as if fully set forth herein, including all facts, information, and theories of recovery supported by the facts and reasonable inferences therefrom that Estate identifies throughout discovery and respectfully requests the Court enter judgment against the Defendants on any theory of recovery supported by the facts and reasonable inferences set forth above including, without limitation, the following:
CLAIM NO. 1
DELIBERATE INDIFFERENCE
MCGEHEE, GARRISON, ASHTON, & GUNNER
42 U.S.C. § 1983
66. Despite actual knowledge of Baxter’s mental condition and the risks, Individual Defendants failed to appropriately address Baxter’s suicide risk with deliberate indifference to the consequences for which Defendants are liable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
67. Despite actual knowledge of Baxter’s mental condition and the risks, Individual Defendants failed to appropriately supervise Baxter and others that are at risk of self-harm or suicide with deliberate indifference to the consequences for which Defendants are liable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
CLAIM NO. 2
MONELL LIABILITY
JAIL TRUST & DERRYBERRY
42 U.S.C. § 1983
68. Estate incorporates the preceding paragraphs as if fully set forth herein and further alleges the facts and reasonable inferences drawn therefrom are consistent with the unwritten practices, training protocols, or direction from a person with final policymaking authority, which served as the moving force behind the deprivations suffered by the Estate and for which the entity Defendants are liable.
69. Upon information and belief, Jail Trust’s written policies, unwritten practices, and training were inadequate and allowed a failure of jail staff supervision of inmates.
70. Upon information and belief, Jail Trust’s written policies, unwritten practices, and training were the moving force behind the injuries and damages suffered by Estate for which the Jail Trust is liable.
71. Upon information and belief, Derryberry’s written policies, unwritten practices, and training were inadequate and significantly increased the risk of harm to people like Gregory because Derryberry authorized deputies to, among other things, supervise and make classification decisions regarding inmates.
72. Upon information and belief, Derryberry’s written policies, unwritten practices, and training were the moving force behind the injuries and damages suffered by Estate for which the County is liable.
CLAIM NO. 3
MONELL LIABILITY
JAIL TRUST
42 U.S.C. § 1983
73. Estate incorporates the preceding paragraphs as if fully set forth herein.
74. Upon information and belief, the Jail Trust failed timely present Gregory to a judge or magistrate after receiving him at the LCDC.
75. Upon information and belief, the Jail Trust’s failure have any policies was the moving force behind the failure to timely bring Gregory before a judge or magistrate for which the Jail Trust is liable.
76. As a direct and proximate cause of the Jail Trust’s failure to implement constitutionally adequate processes to timely bring people before a judge or magistrate, Gregory became increasingly despondent leading to his expressions of acute suicidal ideation.
77. Upon information and belief, had the Jail Trust adopted policies that were constitutionally adequate, Gregory would not have been housed at the LCDC for such an extended period, he would have been released, and he would still be alive today.
IV.
RELIEF REQUESTED
78. Based on the foregoing, including additional facts, information, and claims developed though discovery, Plaintiff respectfully requests the Court enter judgment in its favor and against the Defendants, and award the following relief:
A. Compensatory damages against all Defendants;
B. Punitive damages against the individual Defendants;
C. Nominal damages against all Defendants;
D. Pre and post-judgment interest;
E. Reasonable costs and attorney’s fees;
F. Any other relief to which Plaintiff may be entitled by law;
G. Any other relief the Court deems just and equitable.
Respectfully submitted,
BRYAN & TERRILL LAW
[signature]
Spencer Bryan, OBA #19419
Steven J. Terrill, OBA #20869
BRYAN & TERRILL LAW
2500 S. Broadway, Suite 122
Edmond, OK 73013
Tele/Fax: (918) 935-2777
Attorneys for the Plaintiff
