Inquest jury into inmate's dehydration death recommends charges against 7 jail employees
An inquest jury Monday issued an advisory verdict that probable cause of a crime exists in the death of Terrill Thomas in the Milwaukee County Jail a year ago.
The jury found probable cause of a crime in the actions of seven jail officials under a felony statute prohibiting abuse, neglect and ill-treatment of inmates.
Now it will be up to District Attorney John Chisholm to decide if any criminal charges are warranted in the April 2016 death of Thomas, a 38-year-old with bipolar disorder who was deprived of water and a mattress during seven straight days at the Milwaukee County Jail run by Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr.
Family members hugged outside the courtroom and said they were grateful but wanted to see if justice prevails in the end.
Kimberly Perry, mother of Thomas' son, Terrill Thomas Jr., said the family was overwhelmed by the testimony on the treatment of the elder Thomas.
“The negligence was very rough for me to hear,” she said.
Hank Balson, a lawyer for the Thomas estate, said he expected Chisholm would follow up with charges.
Chisholm told reporters he would give a lot of weight to the inquest verdict but is not bound by it or limited by it. He could charge more than seven people, none or any number in between.
He said he tried to limit the number of individuals to those directly involved in Thomas’ care or jail leaders who knew or should have known of problems.
The jury found probable cause in the actions of seven individuals: Sheriff’s Maj. Nancy Evans, Jail Lt. Kashka Meadors and corrections officers James Ramsey-Guy, Thomas Laine, John Weber, Dominique Smith and JorDon Johnson.
Asked why he did not ask jurors to consider if Clarke may have been liable, Chisholm said he would not comment on whether the sheriff or any other individual would likely face charges.
In the meantime, the jail can make a number of easy fixes to avoid more deaths, he said.
Keeping people safe is “not a high standard” to meet, he said.
Water shut off for 2 others
Earlier Monday the jury heard that in the weeks after Thomas died jail officials ordered the water shut off for two other inmates in the disciplinary pod of the Milwaukee County Jail.
Those two inmates were punished for covering their cell windows, jail logs show.
A prosecutor called the practice “torture,” which was doubly shocking because it followed the death of Thomas.
In another revelation Monday, a jail corrections officer testified that jail supervisors may have balked at sending a “mentally unstable,” babbling Thomas to a psychiatric unit because he was such a big, volatile man.
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Jail lieutenants seemed to suggest that higher-ups weren’t going to move Thomas despite his condition and despite some jailers feeling he needed help, officer Mario Dantzler said.
Thomas was in the jail after allegedly confessing to shooting a man in the chest and later firing two shots in the Potawatomi casino.
In earlier testimony Monday, prosecutors sought to show that the “NutraLoaf” served to Thomas two days before his death was so dry as to cause an incident.
Thomas smashed the loaf with his shower shoes, sending so much dust in the air from the food product that it tripped a fire alarm, jail corrections officer Matthew Carroll testified.
A parade of corrections officers took the stand to say they had no idea that Thomas had been denied water for days.
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Jail policy prohibits shutting off inmates’ water unless the inmate has flooded the cell, officers testified Monday.
But jail logs show a failure to follow orders regarding window coverings resulted in orders that water be cut off to inmates Joseph J. Benson and Jamie J. McGee, in late April and mid-May, respectively, testimony showed.
McGee was on suicide watch for a time, and coughing up blood, on May 14 when the water was shut off. The log says Lt. Crystalina Montano ordered that, but on the stand she said she didn’t know if that happened.
McGee had a medical emergency some 11 hours after the water was cut off, logs show.
In Benson’s case, jail activity logs say that Lt. Brandy Solomon ordered Benson’s water shut off, but she testified that must have been a false entry by an officer.
“There’s no reason to turn off his water,” Solomon testified. Lieutenants are supposed to review the logs, but Solomon said she couldn’t recall seeing it.
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