by Chuck Sharman

On January 9, 2026, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma made a massive $9,544,375 award to the Estate of Jennifer Crowell, agreeing that her 2020 death was the result of federal civil rights violations and state-prohibited negligence inflicted on her by officials at the Choctaw County Jail (CCJ).

Crowell, 37, was observed possibly having a seizure on a street in Hugo on June 26, 2020. Emergency responders were called and transported her to Choctaw Memorial Hospital, where she was seen by Dr. Eric Hogan and a nurse, Velvet Bullard. They observed that she was suffering from “‘suicidal thoughts (acutely psychotic),’ anxiety, hallucinations, delusions, ‘bizarre behavior,’ agitated, ‘aggressive … behavior,’ and ‘violent behavior,’” according to the complaint later filed on her behalf.

But before their examination was through, Crowell struck Bullard. Officers from the City Police Department (HPD) were summoned, and they took Crowell to the CCJ—even though her bloodwork and other testing remained incomplete, and she had not undergone any mental health screening. At the jail, Administrator Christie Terry-Ball refused to book Crowell unless the HPD cops provided a “medical clearance.” When they couldn’t provide one, she summoned County Sheriff Terry Park, who instructed jailers to place Crowell in a suicide prevention cell for observation.

As the district court later noted, “her condition did not improve” at CCJ, where “jailers observed her banging her head on the cell.” They proceeded with suicide watch protocol, stripping Crowell naked. One jailer noted that she “seemed to have difficulty breathing, that her hand had changed in color, and that she may have been having a seizure,” as the district court also recalled. A jailer with some medical training took her pulse and noted that her breathing was shallow. On his advice, emergency responders were called back to the jail, where they collected Crowell and returned her to the local hospital. From there she was transferred to the much larger AllianceHealth Hospital in Durrant, where she died on June 30, 2020.

With the aid of attorneys J. Spencer Bryan and Steven J. Terrill of Bryan & Terrill Law, PLLC in Edmond, Kyle Endicott, as Special Administrator for the Estate, filed suit against the County, Sheriff Park and the Choctaw County/City of Hugo Hospital Authority. Proceeding under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, he accused the various employees of deliberate indifference to her serious medical need, in violation of her Fourteenth Amendment rights. He also sought to extend liability to the County under Monell v. Dep’t of Soc. Servs., 436 U.S. 658 (1978), for its policy of putting detainees who appeared under the influence in a “sober up” cell for four to six hours, delaying their intake and attendant medical screening without regard for the risk to their health.

An additional claim alleged violation of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), 42 U.S.C. § 1395dd; as the district court noted, it was passed “to prevent hospitals from ‘dumping’ patients that they could treat but who could not pay for services.” Further claims alleged negligence under state law.

Court Rulings, Then Jury Trial

The district court quickly dismissed all claims against the Hospital Authority except those under EMTALA on September 28, 2023. See: Endicott v. Choctaw Cty. City of Hugo Hosp. Auth., 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 173935 (E.D. Okla.).

In a separate decision issued that same day, Bullard was granted summary judgment and dismissed from the suit. However, Plaintiff convinced the district court to reconsider, arguing that Bullard set in motion the chain of events that led to Crowell’s death by telling the CCJ that her eviction from the hospital was “authorized” by Dr. Hogan—who testified that he instructed the nurse not to let Crowell leave the Emergency Room. On March 28, 2024, dismissal of the state-law negligence claim against Bullard was reversed. See: Endicott v. Choctaw Cty. City of Hugo Hosp. Auth., 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56110 (E.D. Okla.).

Not quite two months later, on May 22, 2024, Plaintiff was denied a motion for spoliation against Sheriff Park, who deleted 19 text messages sent on the day that Crowell went into cardiac arrest and was returned to the hospital. As suspicious as that sounds, the district court said that there was no longer any evidence to support suspicion and “it is difficult to determine whether Defendant Park failed to take reasonable steps to preserve electronically stored information (“ESI”) as we do not know the subject matter of the deleted text messages, who they were to, or whether they were related to the events that gave rise to the litigation.” See: Endicott v. Choctaw Cty. City of Hugo Hosp. Auth., 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91664 (E.D. Okla.).

Hogan was let off the hook for any civil rights violations on March 31, 2025, when the district court found that Bullard’s false report to jailers was more to blame for Crowell’s death than any deliberate indifference on his part. However, state-law negligence claims against him were allowed to proceed. See: Endicott v. Choctaw Cty. City of Hugo Hosp. Auth., 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 59859 (E.D. Okla.).

Park lost his motion for dismissal on the same day, after trying and failing to convince the district court that he didn’t owe any constitutional duty to Crowell because she hadn’t been booked into the CCJ and so wasn’t technically “in custody.” Video evidence, the district court said, “makes plain that decedent had her personal liberty restrained upon being brought into the jail.” Moreover, Park “ordered her clothing removed, consistent with his directive that she be placed on suicide watch,” orders to which “Decedent had no choice in submitting.” Therefore, the district court concluded, “she was ‘in custody.’” See: Endicott v. Choctaw Cty. City of Hugo Hosp. Auth., 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 59914 (E.D. Okla.).

Bullard and Hogan filed notices of settlement with the district court on September 5 and 8, 2025, respectively; that also resolved claims against the Hospital Authority, which employed them. No payment amounts were disclosed. Remaining claims against the County and Park proceeded to a five-day trial on February 3, 2026. At its conclusion, jurors found for Plaintiff and made their damages award. See: Endicott v. Choctaw Cty. City of Hugo Hosp. Auth., USDC (E.D. Okla.), Case No. 6:21-cv-00319.

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