2 Horry County jail inmates die within months of each other. What happened?
.JPG "J. Reuben Long Detention center beginning the process of expanding facilities to better serve a growing and diverse population of inmates. Feb. 1, 2024.")
Two detainees at an Horry County jail died within months of each other. Now, their families are suing the jail and the medical company that provides its health services in their deaths.
Joseph Brian Watts Jr. was 35 when he was arrested and booked into the J. Reuben Long Detention Center in Conway on July 10, 2024, to await trial. Kelly Nicole James, 44, was booked into the jail on April 18, 2024, on charges that involved drugs, specifically crack/cocaine, fentanyl and meth, a lawsuit said.
Both lawsuits claim wrongful death and medical malpractice and name Horry County, Horry County Sheriff’s Office and Mediko. The lawsuit for James also named the detention center and Dr. Steve Garman, who was the medical director for the jail and an employee of Mediko.
Mediko, based in Richmond, Virginia, has an agreement with the detention center and county to provide nursing and medical care to the detainee population. The agreement has been in place since 2017, according to Horry County Sheriff’s spokesperson Brennan Cavanagh.
Cavanagh said the Sheriff’s Office doesn’t comment on pending litigation. A message left for Mediko was not returned.
Joseph Brian Watts
Watts’ wife, Natalia Watts, filed a lawsuit in his death on Dec. 4.
The suit claims that Horry County and the Sheriff’s Department has a history of failing to provide access to adequate medical services to pre-trial detainees housed within the detention center.
Watts was detained on July 10, 2024, for a non-violence offense, the suit said. At the time of his detainment, the detention and medical staff, which includes Garman, who served as the medical director at the time, were aware of Watts’ history of drug and alcohol dependency, as well as prior episodes of drug and alcohol withdrawal, the suit said.
Watts was placed in an observation cell due to “detoxification.” Over the next several days, Watts began exhibiting “obvious and escalating” symptoms of opiate and alcohol withdrawal, including lethargy, vomiting and diarrhea, the suit said.
The defendants failed to timely intervene and provide medical treatment to Watts, the suit said. At 8:40 a.m. on July 14, 2024, a nurse went to Watts’ cell to deliver medication and as Watts tried to walk to the cell door, he collapsed and became unresponsive, the suit said. Watts was transported to Conway Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
The suit claims the defendants were negligent in failing to have proper polices and procedures in place for administering medication to inmates and failing to properly care for Watts and take “reasonable measures to abate the risk” from his symptoms of drug and alcohol withdrawal. Because of that, Watts suffered serious injuries and death as a result, the lawsuit says.
The suit is asking for a jury trial.
Kelly Nicole James
Trevor Dylan James filed a lawsuit for James’ death on Nov. 20, 2024.
At the time James was booked into the detention center, a medical and suicide prevention screening was performed by security staff, the lawsuit said. James told staff she needed medical attention at the time having recently been seen at an emergency room and taking medication for diabetes. In addition, James was at risk for experiencing two different types of withdrawals which requires two different withdrawal protocols, the suit said.
Mediko had the duty and responsibility to ensure that the appropriate physical and mental assessment and examination was completed within 14 days of a detainee being booked into the facility, including its own intake medical screening on every detainee within 24 hours of their booking, the suit said.
Had James been properly examined and evaluated, it would have been revealed that she was suffering from a mental illness and was a potential threat to herself or others, the suit said. Based on this, James should have been placed on medical/suicide watch until such a time as she could be seen by an actual licensed physician.
Instead of being placed on appropriate drug withdrawal protocol or placed on a medical/suicide watch, she was prescribed 500 milligrams of acetaminophen twice daily for 14 days, the suit claims.
Medical logs for James show she refused to come down to take her insulin or acetaminophen. A few days after her booking, James made a phone call to her mother that was recorded and monitored by the detention center staff that she would kill herself if she did not get out of jail, the suit said.
On April 22, 2024, a corrections officer doing a security check found James sitting on the end of her bunk in her cell not moving. She had a piece of cloth tied around her neck, the lawsuit said. She was pronounced dead later that day.
The suit is asking for a jury trial
