Spartanburg jail officials cleared of wrongdoing in 2015 detainee suicide

Emergency equipment at the Spartanburg County jail was put to the test last year when a woman hanged herself in her cell.

It failed.

Officers at the detention center found Elizabeth Ashley Harmon hanging from the top hinge on a plumbing chase just 13 minutes after they last checked on her on June 7, 2015.

Jail staff knew Harmon, 34, had been hospitalized for a suicide attempt just weeks before coming to jail, according to a State Law Enforcement Division report recently obtained by the Herald-Journal. Nearly a year after her death, that report shows measures in place at the time that might have helped saved Harmon's life didn't work.

Jail officials now say some of the issues raised in the report are being addressed.

Harmon died in a holding cell after being arrested on criminal domestic violence and indecent exposure charges. Reports show an officer checked her into the holding cell at 11:45 p.m., and 13 minutes later she was found hanging by her jail-issued orange shirt.

Harmon had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had been acting erratically during her arrest in a Boiling Springs parking lot, where she had been arguing with her husband, according to reports from the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office. She kicked out a patrol vehicle's window while being transported to jail and fought with deputies.

She was treated for cuts to her legs by an on-site nurse at the jail before she was placed in a holding cell.

Harmon had been wearing a shirt with "a rope-like design," so officers made her wear a county-issued shirt. Her behavior had her placed on special watch, which requires cell checks every 15 minutes.

When Harmon was found hanging, officers brought her to the ground and tried to use an automated external defibrillator to revive her, but the device wasn't working, according to the SLED file. An error message stated, "please replace pads," even though the pads were attached, the report states.

"The AED was placed onto Ms. Harmon ... but never worked," the file states. "The AED kept saying the chest pads were placed incorrectly."

Another officer was notified of the emergency and used a red phone to call 911, the SLED file states. That officer tried three times to call for help, but the phone would not connect, the SLED report found. The officer eventually switched to another phone to call for EMS.

According to the SLED file, a deputy on duty at the jail had told a booking technician that Harmon had been admitted to a hospital for a suicide attempt a few weeks earlier.

Maj. Neal Urch, the jail director, said Tuesday he didn't think deputies were aware of the past suicide attempt. But such knowledge probably wouldn't have changed anything, as Harmon was placed on special watch anyway, he said.

"Regrettably, things do happen beyond their control," Urch said. Urch said he has not yet seen the SLED report.

The Sheriff's Office had requested a SLED investigation of the death, and the agency concluded that no criminal activity occurred.

The holding cell where Harmon died has not been used since the suicide.

Plans call for the booking area to be renovated, but any timeline for that work will depend on the availability of funding.

Architectural drawings are being created to "try and correct some of the different things we keep running into and to prevent this stuff from happening," Urch said. Once the drawings are complete, jail staff will have a better idea of the project's cost.

The plan specifically would redesign the doors that have hinges so they couldn't be used to assist a suicide.

"We have been working on plans to eliminate that being that way," Urch said.

The jail installed cameras in each of the holding cells in December 2015, six months after Harmon's suicide, so that officers could keep an eye on inmates at all times.

Jail staff are instructed to pay close attention to someone the first 24 hours they are in jail, Urch said.

"The ones that are serious about (suicide), you never know and it's just done," he said.

During the cell check before Harmon hanged herself, the woman was sitting with her head down, arms folded and back against the wall, according to the SLED file.

Kay Ward, Harmon's mother, said she still thinks about ways in which her daughter's death could have been prevented.

"It's just so hard. It's almost been a year and it feels like it just happened yesterday," Ward said. "They should have had safety issues in place."