Attorneys for Lee Creely claim CorrectHealth nurse lied about her actions on day he died
Attorneys for Lee Michael Creely claim that a CorrectHealth nurse working at the Chatham County Detention Center (CCDC) lied about her account of what happened on the day in September 2020 when Creely died in a Chatham County Detention Center cell, citing video surveillance and deposition testimony by a former jail worker.
CorrectHealth is the private contractor that provides healthcare to the CCDC.
The attorneys’ argue that the allegedly fictional account by the CorrectHealth nurse, Jackie Harned, “go to CorrectHealth’s systemic failure to deliver adequate health care to people in the jail.
“Plaintiffs’ allegations are that CorrectHealth’s policies and practices at their core are designed and implemented to deliver constitutionally deficient health care to incarcerated people,” argued David Utter and Will Claiborne of the Claiborne Law Firm.
"CorrectHealth defends against Plaintiffs’ evidence that Ms. Harned lied and that her lies emanated from the top of CorrectHealth’s administration," the attorneys assert.
SMN has previously reported that an 18-page review by Dr. Kenneth A. Ray and Dr. Ronald Shansky, two court-appointed monitors, published on Sep. 30, 2020, revealed that “CorrectHealth Policies and Procedures indicates that several relevant health care requirements were not followed.”
SMN also reported that, "security checks [by CCDC jail workers] were not conducted properly, census check, general conduct, and medical protocol for an individual detoxing was not followed," according to Lt. Tanya Jacques, the Chatham County Jail internal affairs investigator tasked with investigating Creely's death.
More: Two internal investigations reveal Creely's death in Chatham County jail 'preventable'
More: Lee Michael Creely's last hours marked by withdrawal, medical indifference in Chatham County jail
More: Defendants argue that Lee Michael Creely 'caused his own demise' by overdosing on drugs in jail
The attorney for CorrectHealth, Carlton Joyce of Bouhan Falligant, said in a phone call that he wasn't allowed to speak about the case.
What are the arguments in the lawsuit?
This court filing is the latest update in the case, which was filed more than two years ago by Creely’s longtime girlfriend, Jessica Hodges. The case was originally filed in Chatham County State Court on Feb. 2, 2022, but removed to federal court.
The case was originally filed against CorrectHealth, the owner of Correcthealth LLC Carlo Musso, seven CorrectHealth employees and seven CCDC employees. Three CorrectHealth employees and three CCDC employees have since been removed from the case.
A previous Savannah Morning News investigation found a series of missteps from the lack of drug treatment to probation bureaucracy, to lax administration of private healthcare within the jail to a lack of oversight from correctional officers caused Creely's death, which occurred on Sept. 6, 2020.
CorrectHealth has previously argued that Creely "caused his own demise," citing the autopsy report and body scans that showed that Creely died from fentanyl overdose and smuggled the drugs into the jail. Two autopsies - one by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and another by Dr. Charles Pugh, the physician who blew the whistle on Corizon, Chatham County's previous private healthcare provider - both concluded Creely died of a fentanyl overdose.
The Claiborne Law Firm, which represents Hodges in the lawsuit, has argued that how Creely died, whether of fentanyl withdrawal or overdose, is irrelevant.
More: Why is the Chatham County DA taking so long to deliberate inmate death investigations?
What do Creely's attorneys claim about the CorrectHealth Nurse?
To support their claim that Harned wasn’t telling the truth, Utter and Claiborne cited video surveillance of Harned speaking with then-corrections officer Terrence Jackson.
Harned has testified that Jackson told her that Creely was discharged from the jail on Sept. 5, 2020. But, citing the same video surveillance and additional testimony evidence from Jackson, Utter and Claiborne argue, “Harned’s story is simply not true.”
Jackson, meanwhile, has said that he remembers speaking to a nurse on Sept. 5, who checked his PPD, but the nurse was not Harned, Utter and Claiborne argued, again citing the video surveillance.
Utter and Claiborne also contend that Harned lied about seeing Creely on Sept. 4, 2020, and rendering medical care to him. Harned’s “proof”—a piece of scrap of paper with her alleged encounter with Creely written on it—was destroyed by her.
The attorneys cited Ray’s testimony on Nov. 16, 2023, saying Ray “testified that even if Ms. Harned’s story is true, she violated the standard of care for not checking on Mr. Creely’s well-being after passing his cell for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th time after being told he was discharged.”
In response to an emailed request for the video from the U.S. Southern Georgia District Court, Clerk of Court John Triplett said, "We just received the materials from the lawyer and are reviewing the details surrounding it. Once a determination has been made on some procedural matters, I will reach out to you about the next steps, if any, that we can take to satisfy your request."
As part of the motion, Utter and Claiborne are also seeking staff meeting minutes and email correspondence to and from Musso, but haven’t received those yet.
Utter and Claiborne are comparing the Creely case to a case in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. In that case, the attorneys argue, “a pre-trial detainee died in a Louisiana jail five days after being booked due to an inadequate medical response to seizures he experienced as a result of withdrawal from benzodiazepines. The nurse did not properly monitor him, he was not properly observed by medical or jail staff, and similar to here, the jail’s security footage revealed disparities between the employee’s account and when the detainee was actually monitored.”
Drew Favakeh is the public safety and courts reporter for Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at AFavakeh@Gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: attorneys allege CorrectHealth nurse lied during deposition in Creely case
