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FRANKFORT, Ky. (Legal Newsline) – Prison officers can’t get out of a lawsuit that blames them for the death of an inmate who ingested fentanyl that was smuggled in.
The Kentucky Court of Appeals made that decision on April 23 in a lawsuit over the 2017 death of Ryan Smallwood of acute fentanyl toxicity. Kloud Jones, the fellow inmate who passed the drug on to Smallwood, pleaded guilty to criminal charges in 2018 and received 300 more months in prison.
The jailer, Eric Jones, and deputy jailers of Montgomery County Regional Jail were appealing an order that refused to grant their motion for summary judgment. The Court of Appeals, though, affirmed.
“Booking, classifying and housing an inmate is a matter of duty and training, and it is not subject to deliberation or judgment but rather to following mandatory procedures,” Judge James Lambert wrote.
“Even though discovery had closed, whether some or all the appellants followed those mandatory procedures involves material factual determinations, making granting the motion for summary judgment premature at the pretrial level.”
Smallwood was jailed for a burglary conviction in April 2017. A psychiatric evaluation showed he was a suicide risks, heard voices and acted violently.
Confrontations with another inmate complicated Smallwood’s time at MCRJ and led to medication increases. He was placed in an observation cell for three days in November 2017.
Two days after that period concluded, Jones came to the jail.
“Jones was patted down and frisked, given a change of clothing and placed in the same cell as Smallwood,” Lambert wrote. “Unbeknownst to the jail personnel, Jones was in possession of fentanyl which he later passed on to Smallwood.”
The jail officials argued they were entitled to qualified official immunity.