Photo supplied, 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

A federal appeals court has ruled that relatives of a man who died in the Davis County Jail failed to show that officials were deliberately indifferent to the prisoner’s risk of death from drug overdose.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals determined in an opinion released Monday that claims brought by Susan Johnson, of Layton, about the care received by her son, Gregory Hayes, 33, on Dec. 14, 2017, were legally insufficient to demonstrate that his constitutional rights were violated.

A medical examiner’s report said Hayes died of intoxication from three medications he had taken before being booked. A probation officer, a Clearfield police officer and jail staff saw that Hayes appeared to have symptoms of intoxication, but none knew exactly which drugs and how many pills he had taken, according to the court record.

The lawsuit filed by Johnson on behalf of Hayes’ estate and his young son hinged on attorneys’ argument that the Davis County Sheriff’s Office had a policy requiring that an apparently intoxicated person should not be incarcerated unless cleared by a doctor.

The suit said the jail allowed staff without medical training to evaluate arrestees during the intake process. Later, in a court deposition, a corrections deputy testified that “95%” of arrestees at the jail showed signs of drug use or intoxication.

BEN DORGER, Standard-Examiner file photo

But U.S. District Judge David Barlow in Salt Lake City ruled in February 2021 that the plaintiffs’ evidence did not show that the county and the sheriff at the time, Todd Richardson, were deliberately indifferent to the risk Hayes faced, even though the jail was not following its intake policy. And now the appeals court in Denver has agreed.

“From our perspective, the county didn’t follow its policies, it elected not to follow them, and that should have been done,” Johnson’s attorney, Daniel Baczynski, said Wednesday.

Attorneys for the county argued that jail personnel were deprived of vital information about what prescription and over-the-counter medications Hayes had taken, including because Hayes had failed to disclose them all. And an expert witness for the county said in a deposition that more information from the probation officer and the police officer could have made a difference.

Further, a jail nurse who checked on Hayes as he lay in a holding cell overnight testified that the jail would have “sent him out” if they had known the police officer had canceled an ambulance call for Hayes before he was arrested.

Hayes had just been released from jail that day after a month’s stay on a drug offense. Hayes’ brother called Hayes’ probation officer, saying Gregory Hayes had just found out his wife was seeing another man and he may have taken pills. The police officer asked Hayes if he wanted to go to the hospital or back to jail, and he chose jail.

Baczynski said he and his client will be considering options, such as further appeals, but it’s unlikely because of the court’s ruling on the sufficiency of the evidence.

Hayes’ death was the seventh at the Davis jail in the span of a year. A lawsuit over the death of Heather Miller, who died Dec. 21, 2016, after falling from her top bunk and suffering catastrophic internal bleeding, remains alive in the federal courts.

Deaths in the Davis jail and other county lockups in Utah that year sparked a reform effort, with the Legislature later mandating that jails report all deaths to the state and provide annual updates on provisions made for prisoners who are withdrawing from narcotics.

The Davis County Jail now screens incoming arrestees with jail nurses before they are processed by corrections deputies. That practice was instituted under the current sheriff, Kelly Sparks.

The sheriff’s office also collaborated with Davis Behavioral Health to set up a receiving center on the jail grounds. There, an arrestee on a minor, nonviolent offense can enroll in addiction treatment rather than go to jail. If the arrestee fails to complete treatment, they are subject to arrest.

The county also is building a $9 million expanded jail medical wing.

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