Oklahoma agrees to $1 million wrongful death lawsuit settlement involving ill inmate
Oklahoma legislators have approved a $1 million payment to the mother of a man who died from acute appendicitis while being held in a state prison.
The payment of $1,050,000 to Christina Smith will resolve a federal lawsuit she filed against Oklahoma after her son, Joshua England, 21, died in 2018.
England died a “tragic and utterly unnecessary death … caused by the callous and deliberate indifference to his serious medical condition shown by medical providers and correction officers” at the Joseph Harp Correctional Center in Lexington, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit claims England, complaining of severe abdominal pains, sought medical treatment at least five separate occasions in just a week’s time before he died.
May 22, 2018: England first visited the prison’s health clinic complaining of vomiting all night and vomiting blood. “My stomach hurts so bad,” he wrote on his request. The licensed practical nurse who saw him, identified as Laura Hays, noted he was “guarding” his abdomen throughout the appointment, but failed to give him a complete abdominal exam. Instead she gave England Pepto Bismol and released him, telling him to return in three days if his pain did not improve.
May 23: England visited the clinic again, saying his stomach pains were so bad he could “barely breathe.” He was seen again by Hays and by Wendell Miles, a physician’s assistant. During that visit, England told them he had excreted bloody stools. They provided England with a laxative and sent him back to his cell.
May 24: England requested to be seen at the clinic a third time but was turned down because he had been treated a day earlier. “Joshua reported to other prisoners that medical staff at the clinic were making fun of him and did not take his complaints seriously.”
May 26: England visited the clinic again and told Miles and Laura Noble, another licensed practical nurse, his pain was so bad he couldn’t lie down. While they again failed to conduct an abdominal exam on England, they did contact physician Robert Balogh by phone. Balogh ordered the staff to treat the inmate by giving him ibuprofen and telling him to drink plenty of fluids and eat fibrous foods.
May 29: England made a final visit to the clinic the day he died. While there, the medical staff recorded the inmate had lost 12 pounds in less than two weeks, appeared distraught, was sweating profusely and had a heart rate of 158 beats per minute. England, the lawsuit states, was told to wait at the clinic, but he instead returned to his cell, where witnesses reported he was saying things that didn’t make sense, making sounds and appeared to be imagining things. It also claims several inmates watched as Hays and other employees, including a prison case manager and detention officer, visited England’s cell. They requested England to return with them to the clinic, but England told them he could not walk. As a result, they made a video of his refusal and insisted he sign a medical care waiver form.
The form that England was required to sign, included as part of the lawsuit, notes the inmate possibly could die if he failed to obtain treatment.
“At this point, Joshua was in obvious extreme distress, obviously delirious from pain and probable shock. Any reasonable lay person would have recognized that Joshua was, at this point, incapable of rational thought and decision making,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit was filed in Oklahoma City federal court against Hays, Miles, Noble, Dr. Balogh, an unnamed case worker and 10 unnamed guards.
Also sued were Joe Allbaugh, who was the director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, and Carl Bear, who was the warden at Joseph Harp Correctional Center.
England had been transferred to the Joseph Harp Correctional Center in February 2018 after refusing to participate in the Delayed Sentencing Program for Youthful Offenders, attorneys for the defendants wrote in one court filing.
He had been evaluated for a possible hernia in April 2018, they wrote. He was scheduled for a surgical consultation after being seen again by medical staff May 16, 2018.
The consultation was set for June 13, 2018, at the Lindsay Municipal Hospital. “In the interim, Mr. England received consistent and ongoing care by JHCC medical staff for suspected stomach and digestive ailments,” the state’s attorneys wrote.
England, the lawsuit states, was serving a 343-day sentence after pleading guilty to oil theft, fourth-degree arson, conspiracy and contributing to the delinquency of minors. He died just weeks after turning 21, with less than three months remaining on his sentence.
The resolution approved by Oklahoma legislators states Oklahoma’s Attorney General (Gentner Drummond) and its director of Oklahoma’s Department of Corrections (Steven Harpe) recommended settling the case.
It states that by agreeing to the deal, the case against the defendants will be dismissed with prejudice and that it will release appointed/elected officials and employees from any future claims related to England’s death.
The resolution was filed with the Oklahoma Secretary of State on May 25, allowing the settlement process to move forward. It did not require a signature from Gov. Kevin Stitt.
“The word is overused, but Joshua’s death was truly tragic,” the mother’s attorneys, Paul DeMuro and Katie Rosenfeld, said in a prepared statement sent to The Oklahoman May 25.
The attorneys said England “should never have been in prison in the first place,” given he had been sent there for a nonviolent property offense and had no previous felony record.
“If the state of Oklahoma is intent in locking up so many of its citizens for nonviolent offenses, the state needs to devote far more resources and attention to its correctional system to fulfill its constitutional duty to provide basic medical care for people in its custody.”
The attorneys said England’s family “continues to mourn his loss each day, but hopes that this settlement spurs the state to care for each person in its custody, so no other family loses their child.”
