By Robert J. Hansen
A $12.75 million settlement for the sister of a man who died in the Shasta County Jail in 2018 was reached last week, against the county, the city of Redding and Wellpath, a national for-profit correctional healthcare company, according to a press statement.
Oakland law firm, Haddad and Sherwin LLP, reached the settlement for Katherine Johnson, the sister of Randall Johnson, the man who died.
“My brother Randy was my best friend. He was always there for me, and our bond never changed from when we were tiny children to our last conversation. He was the light in my life and always had the right thing to say. When he died, something in me died too,” Johnson said in a statement.
Wellpath and one of its employees agreed to pay $11.1 million toward the settlement, five days before the trial against the company and its employees was to begin. Shasta County and the City of Redding paid $1.65 million.
“Even when one of their nurses committed medical fraud and falsified Randall’s medical chart, they kept her working at the jail,” Julia Sherwin, Johnson’s attorney said. “Their practices have deadly consequences. If Wellpath and its employees had done their jobs and followed the law, Randall Johnson would still be alive.”
On August 14, 2018, Randall Johnson, a 56-year-old painter with a disabling work-related injury, attempted to commit suicide by overdosing on methamphetamine, according to Haddad and Sherwin.
Redding police officers found Randall half-naked in his driveway, incoherent, with an elevated heart rate, and covered in his feces.
Randall told the officers he was not a regular methamphetamine user, but that he had used $100 of methamphetamine, partially by injecting it into his system, partially by ingesting it anally in an attempt to commit suicide, Sherwin confirmed.
“We initially filed the case against the city of Redding and its police officers who falsely arrested Randall for public intoxication in his driveway,” Sherwin said.
Officers sent away ambulance personnel who were called to assist Randall, deciding instead to arrest him for public intoxication and take him to the Shasta County Jail, according to Sherwin.
Sherwin said this is not the only incident involving a death at the Shasta County Jail.
“We have two other cases that are in Shasta County that are currently pending,” Sherwin said. “This is a jail system that definitely has problems.”
The nurse falsified Randall’s medical intake form, checking boxes for “no” in response to important medical questions she never asked. Despite the obvious need for emergency medical attention, the nurse and jail staff admitted Randall into the jail rather than allowing him to go to a hospital.
Wellpath licensed vocational nurses were not legally qualified to clear Randall to stay in the jail, but did so anyway.
Had any of the Defendants sent Randall Johnson to a hospital at any point before his death, he would have survived.
“Jail workers and medical staff have to understand that the people they see in jail are not disposable, and they have someone who loves them. I can’t imagine what my brother went through, and can’t believe they just let him die on the floor. Would you want your family treated that way? He should have been in a hospital,” Johnson said.
