Washington County Jail settles with family of inmate who died in custody

By Brendan Kirby, Press Register

May 2, 2011

The aunt of an inmate who died at the Washington County Jail accepted a $25,000 offer last week to settle a lawsuit.

The settlement with the Washington County E911 Commission comes after an earlier agreement by the Sheriff’s Office to pay Jennet Merida $425,000.

Josh Briskman, who represented the estate of Shawn Woodard, said the sheriff has indicated that he plans to increase staffing at the jail. That would help prevent a situation such as the one that occurred in September 2008, when Elton Sullivan was the only corrections officer on duty when Woodard collapsed.

“I think (Woodard’s relatives) were gratified to see some of the efforts by the sheriff to change the procedures,” Briskman said. “They wanted some good to come from this.”

Mark Ulmer, an attorney who represented the E911 Commission, said his client settled because it was cheaper than it would have been to defend the allegations at trial. He said 911 officials did nothing wrong because the dispatcher who handled the call was an employee of the Sheriff’s Office, who merely was working in the 911 office.

“We felt, quite frankly, that we didn’t have any liability,” he said.

Inmate collapsed in cell

Court records indicate that Woodard, who was in jail on a probation violation, got sick on the evening of Sept. 24, 2008, and began complaining of chest pains.

“Before he was able to make it into his cell, he actually collapsed,” Briskman said.

Other inmates helped Woodard to his bed and began beating on the walls to get the attention of a corrections officer. According to the civil complaint, Sullivan did not arrive for about 30 minutes. Sullivan called the dispatcher, who relayed Woodard’s condition to Chief Deputy Terry Beasley, according to the complaint.

Beasley, according to the complaint, instructed the corrections officer to give Woodard an aspirin.

Inmates tried two other times that evening to summon help. Officials did not send an ambulance until after the 33-year-old man had died. Officials were skeptical because of Woodard’s age, Briskman said.

“They did not believe he was having a heart attack, ostensibly,” Briskman said. “They just didn’t believe it was possible.

The attorneys for Woodard’s estate said they had an expert witness lined up to testified that Woodard would have had a 90 percent chance of surviving, had the jail acted quickly.