OGDEN — The Weber County Jail’s former contract medical director has disclaimed any responsibility for the death of an inmate on suicide watch, saying in court papers this week that other contract or county-employed personnel were in charge of that final phase of the man’s incarceration.

Nathan Hall, the older brother of Matthew Hall, 31, who died after jumping head first to the floor in his cell on Feb. 24, 2017, sued Weber County and various personnel in November 2020, alleging the jail failed to adequately treat his brother’s mental illness and botched his care after the suicidal fall.

Attorneys for Dr. John R. Wood, who was the jail’s medical director at the time, filed documents in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City on Monday urging Judge Howard Nielson Jr. to dismiss the allegations against him.

In his motion for summary judgment, Wood said he provided constitutionally adequate care that was up to professional standards for Matthew 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. “Dr. Wood knew that mental health professionals were involved in caring for Mr. Hall. There is no evidence that Dr. Wood acted with deliberate indifference to any substantial risk of suicide.”

Wood’s attorneys cited a 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that said, “strange behavior alone, without indications that that behavior has a substantial likelihood of taking a suicidal turn, does not give rise to deliberate indifference.”

Documents submitted by Wood’s attorneys show numerous notations by jail deputies and nurses that Hall experienced hallucinations, paced naked in his cell, would not respond to deputies or nurses and often refused meals.

On Feb. 23, 2017, Hall was moved to the jail’s medical unit and put on suicide watch as a precaution after deputies said he attempted to jump off a jail tier, according to the jail record.

At about 11 p.m. the next day, according to the suit, jailers saw Hall lying on the floor, bleeding from his head. Surveillance video showed Hall was banging his head on the cell’s brick wall for several minutes before he climbed to the railing behind the toilet and jumped off, landing on the floor head first.

The suit accused the jail of lax suicide monitoring and alleged that nurses and deputies failed to secure Hall’s cervical spine after the fall. The record showed that personnel turned Hall over, lifted him to a sitting position, and deputies handcuffed him. Hall died two weeks later at a local hospital, having suffered a spinal cord injury.

In separate documents, the county has denied all of the lawsuit’s claims and has asked that the suit be dismissed.

Wood, his attorneys said, saw Hall on May 25, 2016, for an evaluation after Hall was on suicide watch. “I believed that, given his demeanor, he would not do well in the general population” of the jail at that time, Wood said in an affidavit accompanying his latest motion. “I recommended that he stay in medical housing and be re-evaluated.” A different health care provider the next day approved Hall’s transfer back to the general population.

Wood said that the 2016 evaluation was the last time he saw Hall. He said he was not notified about Hall being placed on suicide watch again the day before his death. “I generally relied on the mental health workers (at the jail) to make a determination of suicide risk, because they were specially trained in making such an assessment,” he said.

Ogden police arrested Hall in September 2015 after he allegedly scuffled with officers. In September 2016, a judge ordered that Hall be committed to the state hospital for a mental competency evaluation. His attorney requested the evaluation, saying Hall’s mother said her son had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. But due to backlogs at the state hospital, Hall’s evaluation was delayed.

The Weber jail’s medical operations were revamped in 2020, with a national contractor replacing all functions previously provided by Wood, jail-employed nurses and others. This year, the sheriff’s office is reviewing plans for a possible new medical wing.

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