Family of man who died in Mecklenburg jail after pleading for medication settles lawsuit

He died in a jail cell. Now, his family’s lawsuit against Mecklenburg County’s sheriff — and more than 20 other defendants — is coming to a close on terms the family’s lawyers hope will improve treatment of people in jails.

Devin Haley’s family reached a settlement with Sheriff Garry McFadden and the jail’s outgoing medical provider, Wellpath LLC, an April 12 court document shows. Haley’s parents and siblings, in the federal civil lawsuit, blamed his “slow, preventable and totally unnecessary” suicide on the jail’s mistakes.

Haley, 41, had sought treatment for depression and suicidal tendencies before he was arrested for a probation violation on April 3, 2021. He had pleaded for his prescription anti-depressant, Wellbutrin, 16 times in seven weeks in jail, according to the lawsuit.

On May 22, 2021, he was found hanging inside his cell.

Haley never received the drugs he asked for or mental health sessions he was promised, according to the lawsuit, and state-required checks of Haley’s cell twice an hour hardly happened.

“Supervision in the jail was woefully inadequate,” Katie Clary, one of the family’s lawyers, said in an interview Wednesday.

“That allowed for the deterioration of our client’s conditions to go unchecked.”

A jail is designed to gain control over people through supervision, she said.

“If they fail at that inherent, baseline measure, then what are they doing?” she said.

Clary and co-counsel Amanda Mingo told The Charlotte Observer they couldn’t discuss specifics of the settlement because of a confidentiality agreement.

So it’s unclear how much money is being paid to the family by the defendants, who included Wellpath agents and insurance companies along with the sheriff.

McFadden said in a statement he was thankful the matter was resolved to the satisfaction of all parties and hoped the resolution would help Haley’s family heal.

“Mr. Haley’s suicide while in our custody was a tragedy, and shines a light on the serious mental health challenges that so many of our residents battle every day,” said McFadden in the statement, which his lawyer emailed to the Observer.

“These challenges are why I established our Behavioral Health Units and the first capacity restoration program at a local confinement center in the state, and why my staff and I remain dedicated to improving the mental health programs and care at Detention Center-Central.”

Haley’s case had good legal grounds to be filed — and eventually settled — because of well-documented evidence that he sought treatment before being booked, Clary and Mingo said.

“He was a real fighter,” Clary said. “He was working really, really hard to deal with this illness.”

His family is full of fighters, too, she said. Despite incredible grief, they had the drive to want to change things.

Clary said she hoped the settlement would create an “impetus for change.”

In January, Wellpath said in a letter to McFadden that the company would no longer provide medical care to people in Mecklenburg jail facilities after May 18. The news came two months after two inmates died in custody following reported medical emergencies — something the sheriff’s office says wasn’t a factor in the medical contract termination.

A group of Democratic U.S. senators in December sent a letter to Wellpath with concerns about “apparent deficiencies in Wellpath’s care” in jails and prisons across the country following press reports about care being delayed or denied, inadequate staffing, negligence, and people with mental health needs being placed in restraints or solitary confinement.

In response, the Nashville, Tennessee-based company’s chief legal officer wrote that Wellpath was addressing a nursing shortage exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing nursing wage increases, and was providing preventive care to people often for the first time in their lives.

He also wrote that Wellpath provided medical care in a challenging environment — correctional staffers need to escort nurses, so the company must rely on the staffing and schedules of jail and prison facilities.