Incorrect narrative from jail staff complicated Elliott Williams’ cause-of-death ruling, medical examiner testifies – Tulsa World

Former Sheriff Stanley Glanz testified Wednesday that an inmate who died after languishing with a broken neck for days didnt undergo a mental health assessment upon his arrival at the Tulsa Jail because he was acting up.

Glanz took the stand for the first time in the federal civil rights trial in which he and Tulsa County are defendants.

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He told jurors that because of Elliott Williams behavior, he didnt have a problem with the inmates having never been evaluated.

Williams, 37, was taken to the Tulsa Jail in October 2011 after being arrested in Owasso on an obstruction complaint. Rather than going through the jails screening process, Williams was taken directly to a holding cell.

When asked by Dan Smolen, an attorney representing Williams estate, why jailers skipped the screening process, Glanz said Williams had been acting up and needed to be isolated so he could cool down.

If an inmate is creating problems, you put him away from everyone and keep an eye on him, Glanz said.

Shortly after being placed in the cell, Williams rammed his head into the door and fell to the ground, another inmate reported. The inmate called for help, and Williams told detention officers he had broken his neck and couldnt move.

He then lay in the cell untreated for more than 10 hours and eventually defecated before being taken to the medical unit.

Smolen took issue with detention officers decisions not to evaluate Williams mental health and not to place him on suicide watch despite Owasso officers having reported that he was suicidal and appeared to be having a mental breakdown.

The jails policy states that inmates under suicide watch should be under constant supervision.

Glanz argued that even though Williams wasnt on suicide watch, staff could observe him at all times.

Asked how often inmates fail to go through the booking process and lie in their own feces for 10 hours while yelling for help, Glanz responded that it happens two to three times a week in that facility. He clarified that many are intoxicated, which some jail staff falsely believed Williams to be.

Glanz, whose tenure as sheriff lasted from 1988 until his resignation in 2015, also was asked about a five-year period in which a private company operated the jail.

During that time, the company used a federal grant to create a program that aimed to deter people with mental illness from entering the jail and direct them to a mental facility if available. The program succeeded in reducing jail population.

Records show that Tulsa County Social Services received about 100 referrals a week for potential mental health patients. When the Sheriffs Office reclaimed operation of the jail in 2005, the referrals stopped. Former Undersheriff Tim Albin had said the program got lost in the shuffle.

Smolen asked whether Glanz ever requested any studies to learn how the program lowered the the number of mentally ill inmates, and he said he had not.

The attorney also asked why Glanz chose to outsource the jails medical system just months after telling the Tulsa World it should not be privatized. Smolen pointed out that Glanz had said private medical providers tended to cut corners on inmates medical care and that contracting with one would have an adverse effect.

Glanz responded that he changed his mind after other sheriffs told him he didnt have the expertise to run the medical unit.

Jurors were read part of a contract with the company that required the jail to hire a health-care professional to monitor and audit its health unit four times a year. The Sheriffs Office selected Capt. Rick Weigel, who had no medical training, for the position, a move that Glanz said saved the jail money.

When asked if having Weigel perform the duties year after year violated the contract, Glanz said Weigel was responsible for communicating with outside health-care professionals, including his wife, a nurse. Glanz said he believes he eventually hired a health-care professional to fill the position in 2014, three years after Williams death.

Smolens questioning of Glanz was set to continue Thursday morning.

Joshua Lanter, who oversees the Tulsa branch of the state Medical Examiners Office, also testified Wednesday. He told jurors that no one at the Sheriffs Office informed him of Williams complaints of a broken neck and paralysis before his initial autopsy.

Lanter did not discover the damage to Williams spine in his initial examination because neck injuries can be hard to diagnose and he had not treated the case as a suspicious death. It wasnt until a second autopsy was performed by another forensic pathologist that he was able to rule the cause of death as complications of vertebrospinal injuries due to blunt force trauma.

Lanter said he was given information before the autopsy he performed that Williams refused to move while at the jail not that he couldnt move. He also testified that he never received surveillance video from inside Williams cell for a better idea of what led to his death, despite the existence of such recordings. These details likely would have altered the way he performed the examination, he said.

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Incorrect narrative from jail staff complicated Elliott Williams' cause-of-death ruling, medical examiner testifies - Tulsa World