Employees of Richland jail’s caregiver have been accused in deaths elsewhere
The medical care provider at Richland County’s embattled jail has faced at least 19 state and federal lawsuits in South Carolina as well as accusations of negligence in the deaths of two detainees in other states.
Wellpath is the health care provider for the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center. The detention center is facing a potential lawsuit related to the death of 27-year-old Lason Butler, who died Feb. 12 from dehydration while being held at the jail. No criminal charges have been filed in Butler’s death.
The State reached out to Wellpath but had not heard back as of Thursday afternoon.
In North Carolina, a Wellpath nurse was indicted this month in the death of a detainee in a county jail. In another case similar to Butler’s, a lawsuit filed in Washington state in the 2016 death of a detainee resulted in a multi-million dollar settlement.
In October, the former head of the company pleaded guilty to charges related to bribery while he was CEO of a predecessor company, Correct Care Solutions.
Wellpath has faced 19 lawsuits in South Carolina’s federal court and Richland County’s state court since 2019. In 13 of the suits, people detained in prisons and jails accused Wellpath of inadequate care or mistreatment, which the company denies in court filings. Wellpath has denied wrongdoing in all of the lawsuits it has responded to.
Of the 19 lawsuits, six were dismissed outright by the court and four were settled. Nine suits are pending.
Indictment just north
Wellpath, based in Nashville, Tennessee, is one of the nation’s largest medical providers for prisons and jails. It operates in 34 states and Australia, employing 15,000 caregivers for 300,000 patients at “inpatient and residential treatment facilities, civil commitment centers, and local, state and federal correctional facilities,” the company’s website says. The Nashville Business Journal said in 2018 that the company would generate $1.5 billion a year.
The company began in 2003 under the name Correct Care Solutions. In 2018, Correct Care Solutions merged with another company to form Wellpath, the Nashville Business Journal reported.
On April 4, a Wellpath nurse, Michelle Heughins, was indicted on an involuntary manslaughter charge in North Carolina, the Winston-Salem Journal reported.
Her indictment came after a man died in 2019 in the Forsyth County Detention Center in Winston-Salem.
Detention officers hog-tied 56-year-old John Neville of Greensboro, N.C., in December of that year and pinned him for nearly an hour with Heughins nearby, according to court filings obtained by the Winston-Salem Journal. His heart stopped and his brain was deprived of air, killing him.
A grand jury declined to indict five detention officers but concluded that Heughins could be held responsible. Her attorney has maintained her innocence, saying she was the only person who tried to save Neville.
The charge against her is pending.
Neville’s family filed a federal lawsuit against the county, officers, Heughins and Wellpath, ABC News reported.
Richland County Coroner Naida Rutherford ruled Butler’s death in the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center a homicide, creating a potential path for criminal charges to be filed, although it’s unclear who might be charged. No charges or lawsuits related to Butler’s death have been filed against Wellpath or any of its employees.
Another death by dehydration
Butler’s case is similar to the death of a teenager in a jail in Washington state that contracted with Correct Care Solutions. A lawsuit says the teen died of dehydration.
In 2016, Marc Moreno, a mentally ill 18-year-old, was wrongfully jailed at the Benton County Jail in Kennewick, Washington, according to allegations in a lawsuit reported on by Prison Legal News.
While jailed, he was placed in an isolated cell where jail staff observed him acting delusional and not eating or drinking for four days. A nurse with Correct Care Solutions was called in, according to Prison Legal News’ coverage of the lawsuit.
The nurse observed Moreno’s behavior and knew he hadn’t had food or water for days, but took no action “to address his dire situation,” the lawsuit said. The nurse didn’t even takes his vitals, according to the suit.
Moreno’s family sued Correct Care Solutions and the county, leading to settlements worth $5.7 million. That included $4.2 million from the suit against Correct Care Solutions. The case was settled after a federal judge determined Moreno died of dehydration and arrhythmia.
The judge found that Correct Care Solutions had purged emails and deleted email accounts of “relevant former employees” who worked at the jail, according to court filings reported on by the Tri-City Herald of Washington.
“This is not a case where Defendants negligently forgot to stop an automatic document destruction system already in place,” the judge wrote. “Rather, this is a case in which Defendants decided to begin a new document destruction policy in the middle of litigation over a teenager’s death.”
The policy was designed “to destroy bad emails that could be produced” during a court case, the judge wrote.
In Richland County, Rutherford told The State that jail staff knew Butler wasn’t eating or drinking, but did nothing to get him emergency medical attention. She said “lack of action” caused Butler’s death.
An attorney for Butler’s family has said it plans to file a lawsuit against Wellpath, Richland County, as well as jail staff and officials.
The family is being represented by attorney Audia Jones of Houston, Texas, and attorney Bakari Sellers, a former South Carolina lawmaker. Sellers has said that everyone who can be held accountable for Butler’s death will be.
Bribery
Wellpath’s problems haven’t been confined to jail staffers.
In October, the company’s former CEO, Gerard “Jerry” Boyle, pleaded guilty to a bribery scheme to get Correct Care Solutions contracts with jails, the Virginia Pilot reported. During the 2000s, Boyle showered a Virginia sheriff, Bob McCabe, with gifts and money in exchange for jail medical provider contracts and bidding information as well as references for other contracts in Massachusetts, according to the Virginia Pilot.
Boyle founded Correct Care Solutions in 2003. He was the CEO of Correct Care Solutions until 2014 and remained on the company’s board until 2018 when it merged with another health care provider to form Wellpath. He was on Wellpath’s board until 2019 when he retired.
In February, a judged sentenced Boyle to three years in federal prison, according to the Virginia Pilot. Boyle also was ordered to give back more than $2.7 million.
This story was originally published April 14, 2022 at 2:58 PM.