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Former medical director wins ruling in Weber jail death lawsuit

By Mark Shenefelt - | Jun 10, 2022

BEN DORGER, Standard-Examiner file photo

A look inside Weber County Jail on Monday, Sept. 9, 2019.

OGDEN — A former Weber County Jail medical director has successfully defended himself against a civil suit that accuses various personnel of fault in the death of an inmate who was on suicide watch.

Matthew Hall died in a local hospital after jumping head first to the floor in his jail cell on Feb. 24, 2017. His brother, Nathan Hall, sued Weber County, jail corrections deputies, nurses and Dr. John R. Wood in November 2020, alleging the jail failed to adequately treat the inmate’s mental illness and botched his care after the suicidal fall.

Wood was the jail’s contract medical director, while the other defendants were county employees. Three years later, the Weber County Sheriff’s Office restructured the jail medical operation, going with a national corrections medical company to provide both physician and nursing services for inmates.

The suit contended that Wood “would have been the physician to have treated Mr. Hall for his depression and suicidal tendencies and should have assessed whether anti-depressant medications might have been prescribed as part of his routine care and failed to do so.”

Wood should have known or been notified that Hall was on suicide watch and therefore should have provided urgent care, including assessment for medications, the suit asserted.

In a motion for summary judgment filed by his attorneys in February this year, Wood said he provided constitutionally adequate care that was up to professional standards for the 31-year-old Hall during his 15-month incarceration on charges of assaulting police officers.

Wood said he was directly responsible only for his work and that of two physician’s assistants in his employ. Mental health care was performed in the jail by a different contractor and nursing services were provided by county-employed personnel.

Wood provided to the court records from Hall’s inmate files showing that during his incarceration, Hall was asked about his mental state and denied being suicidal on seven occasions. Hall also was offered but refused mental health counseling four times, according to the records.

“The fact that Dr. Wood did not diagnose depression or suicidal tendencies which were flatly denied by Mr. Hall does not amount to deliberate indifference” to his care, the legal standard that plaintiffs must demonstrate has been violated, Wood’s motion said.

Because Hall’s attorneys have failed to respond to the summary judgment motion, U.S. District Judge Howard Nielson Jr. this week dismissed Wood as a defendant in the case.

The litigation now continues in the suit’s claims against the county and the remaining defendants.

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