County is cleared in civil rights suit
Jury: Jail staff didn’t violate detainee’s rights
A federal jury took Oklahoma County’s side recently in a lawsuit over a county jail detainee’s 2019 death that sought $11 million in compensation.
A jury of five women and two men on Friday determined the county jail’s staff did not violate Daryl Clinton’s civil rights before he died Aug. 10, 2019, of a heart attack while being held inside the facility.
The decision came despite undisputed evidence and trial testimony painting a stunning assessment about medical care Clinton should have received at the jail, but didn’t.
The lawsuit was filed in April 2021 by Equlla Brothers, Clinton’s sister and executor of his estate.
Beyond Oklahoma County Sheriff Tommie Johnson III, other defendants included the Oklahoma County Board of County Commissioners, Turn Key Health Clinic, Dr. Kent King (who worked for Turn Key), and 10 unidentified individuals.
Johnson was named in the 2021 lawsuit because he was sheriff when it was filed. At the time of Clinton’s death, the jail was under control of then-Sheriff P.D. Taylor. A trust would take over the jail’s operations in July 2020.
Turn Key and King were dismissed from the case with prejudice after they agreed to a settlement with Brothers and Clinton’s other heirs on Aug. 29, 2022, for an undisclosed amount.
Oklahoma County’s request to have the lawsuit dismissed in June was denied by U.S. District Court Judge Scott L. Palk.
Clinton, 56, was arrested Aug. 5, 2019, by Oklahoma City police after he had forcefully backed his car into a light pole at a gas station. Responding officers suspected he was intoxicated.
But he wasn’t taken directly to the jail. According to trial testimony and evidence, he first was taken to SSM
Health St. Anthony Hospital for a medical evaluation that included a physical evaluation and CT scans.
Evidence accepted as undisputed and material in the case showed Clinton initially complained of random pain, partial paralysis and other ailments. But when the hospital also wanted to conduct a neurological exam on Clinton, the patient refused to cooperate.
A physician’s assistant, who observed Clinton could move his upper and lower extremities, concluded he appeared to be malingering to avoid being taken to jail. Discharge orders from the hospital stated Clinton should be seen by a doctor within 48 hours, the evidence showed.
While Clinton was being booked at the jail early Aug. 6, video entered into evidence showed he experienced difficulties staying seated upright in a wheelchair, at one point causing his pants to fall off his waist and leaving his private areas exposed for hours.
Once on the jail’s medical floor, Clinton told staff that he couldn’t urinate, requiring him to be catheterized. He also repeatedly reported he could not get up, use the toilet or eat without assistance, the evidence showed.
When a detention officer reported Clinton’s difficulties to Turn Key Health personnel on Aug. 8 and asked for the detainee to be moved to the floor’s infirmary, the charge nurse told the officer Clinton “was just faking it” and to “ignore him,” the evidence showed.
That same jail detention officer asked that Clinton be moved to the infirmary again on Aug. 9. While Clinton was seen by a doctor that day, that visit only was related to his mental health. The doctor reported after that visit he believed Clinton could function where he was being held, despite complaints from the detainee that he could not move or feel his hands, the evidence showed.
Early Aug. 10, Clinton called a detention officer to his cell for help because he said he could not feed himself. According to the undisputed evidence, the officer asked a Turn Key charge nurse again to evaluate the detainee, something that didn’t happen.
Three hours later, two guards were told Clinton was “faking it” by Turn Key personnel after they had found Clinton “lying in a pool of urine and feces” inside of his cell.
The officers left the cell to get what they needed to clean Clinton up, but found him on the cell’s floor and unresponsive when they returned.
At that point, an ambulance was summoned, and Clinton was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
During closing arguments, Brothers’ attorneys highlighted that evidence and more, stating Clinton should have been returned to a hospital much sooner than he was.
They also said a general lack of indifference to Clinton’s suffering exemplified previously cited problems inside the jail found by Health Department inspections and certification reviews.
“We can’t be the greatest city, county or state until we treat the least fortunate of us fairly — we will never see the Oklahoma County jail change. No one heard our client’s voice — let them hear yours,” attorney Reggie N. Whitten, representing Brothers in the lawsuit, told jurors during closing arguments.
But Assistant District Attorney Rodney J. Heggy argued Clinton’s autopsy after his death showed he ultimately died from a spinal bleed related to a cervical spine fracture – something the hospital’s initial exams failed to detect before he was taken to jail.
Heggy also disputed arguments the jail’s staff was indifferent to Clinton’s issues, saying it interacted with him 19 different times during the four days he was held because of his medical complaints.
The jail’s detention staff thought it was dealing with a detainee who was suffering from typical motor vehicle accident symptoms, and couldn’t have been expected to know something more serious was wrong, he said.
“It wasn’t deliberate indifference,” said Heggy.