Suit: Staff at Anoka jail withheld opioid withdrawal meds from inmate who collapsed, was injured

Vomit covered Deyonta Green’s face and blood had pooled in his skull by the time Anoka County jail staff finally intervened in a harrowing and untreated weeklong spiral of heroin withdrawals, according to a lawsuit filed this week.

The 58-page complaint is just the latest lawsuit to take aim at MEnD Correctional Care, an embattled for-profit private health care provider based in Sartell that had been used by other Minnesota counties to provide jail services.

According to the suit, contracted medical staffers in the Anoka jail refused to give Green, 25, of Champlin, his prescribed medication to treat opioid withdrawals. He informed the jail during his intake that he had a Suboxone prescription and had just ingested heroin earlier on the day of his February 2022 arrest.

Green instead endured sleeplessness, diarrhea and vomiting while asking repeatedly for the medication. By the time he was rushed out of the jail for emergency medical intervention after a fall, he had multiple brain bleeds, skull fractures and acute kidney failure, among other maladies.

Anoka County contracted with MEnD in 2020 despite knowing, according to Green’s attorneys, that the company was a “deliberately indifferent medical ‘provider,’” and remained in the contract despite “glaring and persisting deficiencies” that included insufficient staffing at the jail.

Kathryn Bennett, an attorney representing Green, wrote in her complaint that MEnD staff carried out “wholly inadequate well-being checks on individuals suffering from known and severe opioid withdrawal.” Bennett accused MEnD of having a cost-savings model that leaned on lesser qualified assistants, nurses or health techs rather than physicians “as the boots on the ground” at the jails where it contracted to provide services.

Tierney Peters, a spokesperson for the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office, said Friday that authorities were “reviewing the complaint and other relevant information with our attorney’s office and will issue a response to the complaint at the appropriate time.”

Peters added: “The Anoka County Sheriff’s Office continues to take the responsibility of caring for those legally confined to jail very seriously and remains committed to helping inmates leave the facility in a healthier condition than when they enter.”

Green was booked into the jail on Feb. 5, 2022, after failing to report for a 180-day sentence for felony possession of a controlled substance. Bennett wrote that Green wasn’t allowed access to his Suboxone and was instead prescribed “pharmacological band-aids” such as anti-nausea and anti-anxiety medication, and over-the-counter pain relief pills days into his worsening symptoms. Stopping or abruptly cutting back on Suboxone can also lead to severe and painful withdrawal symptoms like those of other opioids, Bennett wrote.

A corrections officer noted on Feb. 9 that Green was covered in feces and vomit and had to be provided new clothing items. The officer helped Green clean his cell and departed with “a verbal warning about keeping his cell neat and clean.”

Around 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 12, an officer found Green in an “awkward position” lying on his stomach on the floor of his cell. Green is believed to have collapsed in the cell, severely injuring his head. There were no medical personnel at the jail in the early morning hours that day.

Green’s lawyers say jail staffers documented making 55 well-being checks on Green during his stay — far fewer than the 480 that Bennett said Green’s condition would’ve warranted under state law.

A few weeks later, Green was rushed to HCMC to treat multiple skull fractures and a brain bleed and was discharged on March 6. He still requires follow-up care because of the traumatic brain injury and persistent cognitive issues stemming from it.

Two unnamed corrections officers as well as three medical workers — Michelle Skroch, Holly Jensrud, and Monica Calvario — are being sued, along with Anoka County.

Green’s lawsuit alleges multiple Eighth Amendment and 14th Amendment violations. He is seeking a money judgment against jail and medical staffers as well as Anoka County.

Green’s attorneys also want an order mandating changes in the policies and procedures of the Anoka County jail, “requiring among other things, policy/training changes to ensure that prescription medications carrying known and obvious withdrawal risks are properly administered.”

Bennett pointed out that the numerous civil rights lawsuits against MEnD should have been red flags to Anoka County when it considered doing business with the company. At least four lawsuits involved inmate deaths, including a woman whose opioid withdrawals led her to lose 17 pounds in four days at that jail.

The 2018 death of Hardel Sherrell in the Beltrami County jail led the county to end its contract with MEnD early and prompted an FBI investigation. Sherrell, 27, had been in the jail nine days when he died of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare disorder that causes the immune system to attack nerves. Beltrami County and MEnD agreed to pay $2.6 million last year to settle the case.

In January 2022, the state medical board indefinitely suspended the license of Dr. Todd Leonard, MEnD’s owner, before restoring it late last year. At the time of suspension, the board adopted the findings of an administrative law judge who noted that Leonard’s violations were so severe that “disciplinary action is not only warranted, but it is in the public interest.” Leonard previously admitted to failing to document risks of suicide, failing to document addictions and “exhibiting inappropriate prescribing practices.”

Those disclosures prompted the Minnesota Nurses Association to ask all Minnesota counties to terminate contracts with MEnD in November 2021. MEnD filed for bankruptcy in December 2022 and terminated its remaining health care services with the counties, according to news reports.