Lawsuit over inmate death settled
PURCELL — A settlement has been reached in a federal lawsuit over the 2013 death of a diabetic inmate who was denied medical care at the McClain County jail.
County commissioners agreed to pay $750,000 to the estate of Kory Dane Wilson, court records show.
“Hopefully, this serves as a deterrent for jails around the state and the country not to do this . ... It’s just a tragedy,” said John Branum, an Oklahoma City attorney involved in the lawsuit.
“There was not only a horrible, horrible thing that happened, there was a huge coverup,” the attorney said.
Commissioners agreed to the settlement in May after a former jail administrator pleaded guilty to violating the inmate’s right.
The former jail administrator, Wayne Evans Barnes, admitted he failed to obtain medical assistance for the inmate after being alerted to the inmate’s medical condition.
A federal judge in August sentenced Barnes to 51 months in federal prison.
Wilson was arrested on June 16, 2013, at Newcastle Casino, for allegedly having a gun. He then was taken to jail.
As he was being booked in,
Wilson told jailers he had Type 1 diabetes and needed insulin, records show. The federal investigation found he was never given any medication at the jail and was never seen by a doctor.
He was hospitalized on June 19, 2013, after being found unresponsive on the floor of his cell. He never regained consciousness and died two days later.
Wilson was 27 and had lived in Oklahoma City. An autopsy determined Wilson died of diabetic ketoacidosis.
He was charged in McClain County District Court on the day he died with knowingly concealing stolen property and carrying a weapon where alcohol is served. The felony case was dismissed a week later.
Wilson enjoyed playing video games and riding bicycles, according to his obituary. He worked in
hotel restoration.
The amount of the settlement to the estate was revealed in probate records filed in September.
More than half the settlement went to pay attorney fees and expenses and Wilson’s final medical bills. The rest is for his sole heir, a son.
Two county commissioners told The Oklahoman insurance covered the settlement.
They said property owners will not see any increase in real estate taxes because of the settlement.
Attorneys for Wilson’s family said in court papers he suffered “a torturous death.”
“If we treated ... people ... suspected of terrorism down in Guantanamo Bay the way that we treat our own citizens in county jails in Oklahoma, everybody would be up in arms about it,” Branum said in an interview with The Oklahoman.
“It would be on the nightly news.”