The family of a young mother who passed away in a rural jail has settled the lawsuit they filed against the jail for $270,000. The lawsuit was filed against the Mississippi County Detention Center shortly after Somer Nunnally died from an overdose back in May 2015 and alleged that “jailers laughed at Nunnally as she died on the floor of” of her cell.
The family of a young mother who passed away in a rural Missouri jail has settled the lawsuit they filed against the jail for $270,000. The lawsuit was filed against the Mississippi County Detention Center shortly after Somer Nunnally died from an overdose back in May 2015 and alleged that “jailers laughed at Nunnally as she died on the floor of” of her cell.
Tragically, the 21-year-old mother left behind two small children who are now six-years-old and three-years-old. But what happened? How did Nunnally overdose and why did no one help her? Well, it all began back in May 2015 when Nunnally was “arrested by Charleston cops after crashing into a trash can.” According to the lawsuit, she was “dangerously high on prescription pills, something police clearly knew because her friend had told them.”
Once in custody, Nunnally’s condition only continued to deteriorate. For example, she “slipped in and out of consciousness and, at one point, managed only to sign her jailhouse intake forms with an ‘X,’” according to the lawsuit. Instead of getting Nunnally medical care, the suit claims “corrections officers laughed as she cried and begged for help.”
She was left alone in her cell for more than 11 hours before a corrections officer checked on her around 6 a.m. Unfortunately, it was too late. She was “pronounced dead at the jail.”
The lawsuit against the jail was filed by the father of Nunnally’s children and named “nearly a dozen defendants, including corrections officers, the county, the city of Charleston and now-suspended Sheriff Cory Hutcheson, who is facing federal identify theft charges in an unrelated case.” As part of the settlement agreement, Mississippi county agreed to pay $195,000 and Charleston will pay $75,000. Despite the settlement, none of the defendants have admitted to any wrongdoing.
In the end, after accounting for lawyer fees and expenses, “Nunnally’s kids will spit about $105,000,” which will be put into annuities. When they’re eighteen years old, the “money will be put in annuities, and they’ll begin receiving payments when they’re eighteen years old.” Nunnally’s mother, who also joined in on the suit, is expected to receive about $8,000.
The case involving Nunnally wasn’t the first disturbing incident at the jail, though. Back in 2014, a separate lawsuit claimed a “pregnant inmate suffered for five days without medical help.” Eventually, she was “transferred to another detention center more than 240 miles away, where the baby was stillborn.”
Then, in May 2017 a man was brought to the jail after “getting lost and hitchhiking into Mississippi County.” The man, Tory Sanders, “was put on a mental health hold, but then died after being shocked repeatedly with a taser,” according to authorities.
Sources:
Family of Young Mom Who Died in Troubled Missouri Jail Settles Lawsuit
Tory Sanders Made a Wrong Turn Into Missouri. He Never Made It Out
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