$6 Million Settlement in Illinois Detainee’s Gruesome Untreated Heroin Withdrawal Death
On December 18, 2024, notice was filed in the federal court for the Central District of Illinois that a $6 million good-faith settlement had been reached resolving a lawsuit seeking compensation for the April 2022 death of pretrial detainee Brian Downs at the Morgan County Detention Facility (MCDF). The complaint filed for his Estate by Administrator and next-of-kin Julie Downs, the detainee’s mother, painted an all-too-familiar picture of the failure of jails to treat detainees suffering from the effects of opioid addiction, but its grim details are still shocking.
Downs, 45, was arrested on April 22, 2024, for resisting or obstructing a Jacksonville Police Department (JPD) officer, who was responding to a call from the manager of JB Hawks Discount Tobacco and Vape shop, where Downs had allegedly left behind a syringe in the restroom. Two JPD officers named Schriber and Radliff “immediately recognized” Downs, the complaint recalled, “from his history of illegal drug use.” They also found him erratic and disoriented, apparently suffering from severe heroin withdrawals.
Downs was transported by the officers to a local hospital upon arrest. There, a blood draw disclosed the presence of heroin in Downs’ system, and he was treated by hospital staffers. Against their advice, the complaint continued, the officers demanded Downs’ discharge so that he could be booked into jail. Medical staffers complied, also issuing instructions that Downs should be returned to the hospital if his symptoms worsened—including any vomiting.
A few hours after arrival at MCDF, Downs began vomiting. Sadly, MCDF was either ill-prepared or lacked procedures to treat detainees suffering from withdrawal symptoms. Surveillance video from the jail over the 34 hours of his detention showed the lack of treatment that Downs received. First, he vomited a yellowish substance 14 times. He then vomited blood 33 times in the morning hours of April 24, 2022. At 12:24 p.m., he was examined by a nurse with the jail’s privately contracted medical provider, Advance Correctional Healthcare (ACH), who administered withdrawal medication. But no further medical care was provided.
Between 12:35 and 7:35 p.m. that same day, video captured Downs vomiting another 48 times—more than once every 10 minutes for seven hours. At around 12:15 a.m. on April 25, 2022, when Dep. T. Griffin of the County Sheriff’s Department (MCSD) arrived and found Downs in a holding cell, he became alarmed and asked why the detainee was not receiving medical care. MCDF staffers informed Griffin that they could not locate an off-duty guard to transport Downs to a hospital.
Griffin then brought his cruiser to MCDF’s sallyport to provide transport for Downs to a hospital. By that time, though, it was too late. Downs went into cardiac arrest and died. An autopsy concluded what should have been obvious to anyone who watched a man vomit that many times in such a short time: that he needed medical treatment. In fact, Down’s death was due to treatable conditions, including dehydration and septic shock from a bowel obstruction caused by opioid withdrawal syndrome.
With the aid of attorney Richard D. Frazier of Cherry, Frazier & Sabin LLP in Springfield, the Estate filed suit in March 2023 against the County, Sheriff Mike Carmody and his jailers, as well as ACH and its staff at MCDF. Proceeding under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Julie Downs accused Defendants of violating his Fourteenth Amendment right not to be punished without due process with their deliberate indifference to his serious medical need. The complaint also sought to hold the County liable for tolerating a custom or practice of mistreatment, as provided under Monell v. Dep’t of Soc. Servs., 436 U.S. 658 (1978). State-law claims for Downs’ wrongful death were also included in the complaint.
The parties then proceed to reach their agreement, with the County and its Defendants agreeing to the $6 million settlement payout. The ACH Defendants then joined the agreement after Plaintiff agreed that any judgment against them would be offset by that $6 million amount. The settlement included fees and costs for Plaintiff’s counsel. See: Downs v. Cty. of Morgan, USDC (C.D. Ill.), Case No. 3:23-cv-03066.
Additional source: Springfield State Journal-Register
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Related legal case
Downs v. Cty. of Morgan
| Year | 2024 |
|---|---|
| Cite | USDC (C.D. Ill.), Case No. 3:23-cv-03066. |
| Conclusion | Settlement |