Inmate’s 2023 death caused by ‘water intoxication,’ death certificate reveals

ALDEN, N.Y. (WIVB) — While under the custody of the Erie County Sheriff’s Office last year, William Hager somehow consumed enough water to cause his own death.

Hager, a 44-year-old Army veteran with a history of mental health issues, was being held at the Erie County Correctional Facility in Alden in November 2023 on a burglary charge, while undergoing forensic evaluations to determine his competency to stand trial.

Sources and family members told News 4 Investigates that Hager’s mental health was worsening in the weeks prior to his death, which should have triggered a more careful watch of him while at the jail.

Hager was the 38th inmate to die under the custody of the Erie County Sheriff’s Office since 2005. He was the second inmate to die in a three-month span last year. The other inmate, Shaun Humphrey, died in August.

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The string of deaths led to the sheriff’s office being under the oversight of the U.S. Department of Justice. But that ended last year, after the DOJ found the sheriff’s office complied with the required improvements to inmate health care and suicide prevention over an 18-month span.

But Hager’s three sisters said the cause of death of their brother raises more questions about how the sheriff’s office manages the jails.

“He should have been in the hospital,” said Jennifer Hager, one of his three sisters.

Hager’s death certificate obtained by News 4 Investigates states he was pronounced dead at Sisters of Charity Hospital’s emergency room in Cheektowaga at 8:23 p.m. on Nov. 19, 2023.

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The medical examiner ruled the manner of death accidental, and the cause was water intoxication. Under a section to describe how the injury occurred, the medical examiner typed, “excessive water intake.”

The sheriff’s office confirmed Wednesday that all jail cells in Alden have sinks.

“I was shocked,” Hager’s oldest sister, Tina Pope, said about the cause of death.

Pope, who worked a short stint as a nurse for the sheriff’s office in 2019, said correctional staff should have known that Hager was consuming too much water.

“Being in the medical field, right, and knowing what has to transpire to get to the point where you die of water intoxication, I think there were probably hours and hours that there could have been intervention that could have prevented my brother’s death,” Pope said.

Water intoxication is a rare condition that causes an electrolyte imbalance, and can be a symptom of various mental health conditions.

Hager’s family said they were provided minimal information by the sheriff’s office.
Jennifer Hager said they were told their brother had a seizure in the jail, and an ambulance transported him to the hospital.

Three days after Christmas, the family filed a notice of claim with the sheriff’s office and Erie County Sheriff John Garcia, who was elected in 2021 on a promise to bring more professionalism to the agency.

Among the allegations made in the claim is that Hager had not been eating in the days leading up to his death, and that the sheriff’s office failed to provide him with appropriate medical and mental health care.

“One of my first questions was what led up to that? What was he saying, what was the correctional officers saying to him,” said Tammy Cumpston, Hager’s second-oldest sister. “Shouldn’t he have gone to a hospital if he [wasn’t] eating or drinking? And they didn’t have answers.”

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Brittanylee Penberthy, the family’s attorney, said the sheriff’s office must do better.

“I think we were optimistic, obviously, with a new sheriff in town,” she said. “I’m still very optimistic that perhaps Sheriff Garcia can turn the ship around.”

The Erie County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment, citing the notice of claim filed by Hager’s family.

Garcia has made some changes.

He has launched a body camera program for correctional officers and is seeking accreditation for the county’s two jails.

But his administration continues to struggle to reverse the trend of inmate deaths, with two occurring last year in a three-month span. On average, since 2005, an inmate has died once every six months under the custody of the sheriff’s office.

In a recent interview with the sheriff’s office jail management division, the superintendent told News 4 Investigates, in general terms, that all inmates with mental health conditions “deserve quality access to mental health treatment.”

About 59% of inmates in both county jails are being treated for mental illness, said Michael Phillips, the superintendent of jail management.

“I’ve got full confidence in what we’re doing with our medical professionals and the care that we provide,” Phillips said.

Thomas Dina, chief of community reintegration, said they continue to adapt to a trend in which jails “are no longer being designed as a house of punishment” by focusing on therapy, rehabilitation, and restorative justice.

The sheriff’s office is seeking support to build a new jail facility, with cost estimates exceeding $200 million. The county is going through a needs assessment to determine if a new facility is necessary.

But Dina implied that the county facilities were not constructed in a manner that took into account inmate mental health issues and the growing medical needs that jail management faces today.

“We’re not going to prejudice the outcome of the needs assessment, but from all of us working in the buildings, it’s time,” Dina said. “These buildings need to be replaced.”

But Hager’s sisters have not found much comfort in the responses they have received from the sheriff’s office. In fact, one sister described the family members as being “very in the dark” about the chain of events.

But they know that inmate deaths are an ongoing problem at county jails.

“So, for me, I just want better care for the inmates,” said Jennifer Hager.

Dan Telvock is an award-winning investigative producer and reporter who has been part of the News 4 team since 2018. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter.

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