$50M Trial Set: Macon Cty Jail Cops Beat Diabetic Black Man b/c he Couldn't Stand Up On His Own & White Doctor & Nurse Refused to Give Meds or Take Him to a Hospital for 5 Days, Causing Death

From [HERE] A $50 million lawsuit alleging the wrongful death of a Black inmate in the Macon County Jail is headed to trial after a federal judge denied multiple motions claiming there was no case to answer.

Michal Carter died on July 18, 2015, just days after he was booked into the jail while he awaited federal court proceedings on drug and weapons charges. The lawsuit contends that Carter died because medical staff working at the jail refused to give him his prescription medicine for his diabetes. 

U.S. District Court Judge Colin S. Bruce, in a 52-page ruling, denied motions for summary judgment filed by attorneys defending the Macon County Sheriff’s Office and certain members of the jail’s staff, Decatur Memorial Hospital and a key figure in the case, Licensed Practical Nurse Jo Bates, a former DMH employee, who worked at the jail.

Another major defendant in the case, Dr. Robert Braco [racist suspect in photo above], who worked for the hospital and supervised jail health care under a hospital contract with the jail, did not file a motion for summary judgment.

All the defendants are now scheduled to present their arguments in court at a trial scheduled for Sept. 8 where they will oppose claims they should be held liable for the death of 35-year-old inmate Michael A. Carter on July 18, 2015.

The lawsuit alleges Braco and Bates were on the front lines of a jail health care system that provided inadequate medical intervention and doomed Carter to die by failing to respond properly to his deteriorating condition.

One part of the lawsuit even describes Carter’s mother calling up Bates and pleading with the nurse to save her son by sending him to a hospital for treatment. A jail surveillance video showing what proved to be some of the final stages of Carter’s life will also be part of the trial evidence.

Previously, after a year of failing to comply with request for records, released files indicate that Nurse Bates was fired for unsatisfactory performance. It also said jail staff were upset by derogatory comments made by Bates after Carter's death and didn’t want her to return to the jail. Bates made several inappropriate comments in front of other staffers, such as “If you need anything, I’m going to the boat and will be drinking” and “This was God’s way of natural selection, weeding out the rif-raf” after Carter died. 

Carter, 35, was booked into the jail July 13 and Gordon’s lawsuit said his prescription diabetes medication had been confiscated by jailers. At intake, Mr. Carter possessed prescription oral medication to manage his diabetes. According to the amended complaint Mr. Carter asked various defendants, at various times, to administer his medication as prescribed. The lawsuit alleges medical staff at the jail, nurse Bates and DMH physician Dr. Robert Braco, refused to give Carter access to his medicine as his condition worsened and he was doubled over in pain.

Evidence from jail records compiled by Gordon show that Carter called his fiancee on the phone to complain of “extreme abdominal pain, vomiting, weakness, fatigue, shortage of breath” as his untreated diabetes worsened.

“She knew he was in serious medical danger based on his obvious difficulty breathing and disorientation,” Gordon wrote in the lawsuit.

On July 17 Carter’s mother, Sheila McGee, who is a nurse, called the jail and spoke to Bates, explaining her son was diabetic and must have his medicine. “Mr. Carter’s mother warned defendant Bates that his symptoms sounded like diabetes ketoacidosis, an emergency life-threatening situation,” Gordon said in the lawsuit.

“She asked the defendant Bates to immediately transfer him to a nearby hospital so he could receive adequate medical attention and an IV insulin drip. Defendant Bates refused, telling Mr. Carter’s mother that defendant Dr. Braco would check on him the following day. Defendant Bates further told Mr. Carter’s mother that he was simply having ‘anxiety about being incarcerated.’”

The complaint states, “That sometime later on July 17, 2015, Mr. Carter was again returned to the jail's medical unit. Later that evening, he was briefly seen by defendant Dr. Braco, but not treated. No glucose level tests were performed, and defendant Dr. Braco continued to refuse to give Mr. Carter diabetic medication to treat his deteriorating condition. And in spite of his obvious and serious medical distress. Dr. Braco ordered that Mr. Carter be returned to a general population jail cell the following morning.“

Gordon said Braco kept refusing to supply Carter with his medication or give him an insulin shot and, by July 18, the inmate was unable to stand on his own, not eating and disorientated.

In spite of Mr. Carter's obvious serious medical distress on July 18, 2015, and severe risk of great injury and/or death, he was forcibly removed from his medical his cell by defendants West, Parsano, Patton, Collins, and Page, all employed by defendant Macon County Sheriffs Department. Defendant West stepped on Mr. Carter's hand and kicked him numerous times, before picking him up around his neck, and putting him into a wheelchair. He was wheeled to a segregated housing area of the jail known as "deadlock", an area reserved for uncooperative inmates. inmates. He had been considered uncooperative simply because he couldn't stand on his own and was non-responsive. The segregated cell he was taken to contained no video surveillance for medical monitoring.

That throughout the morning of July 18, 2015, various jail staff and the defendants observed Mr. Carter in his jail cell in obvious medical distress and still refused to call an ambulance. As hours passed by, an officer at the jail finally demanded defendant Bates summon an ambulance so he could be transported to the hospital. Defendant Bates refused, and instead telephoned defendant Dr. Braco, who was away from the jail facility. In spite of various jail staff and defendants witnessing Mr. Carter's obvious medical distress, no one called an ambulance.

That even after defendant Bates told defendant Dr. Braco that Mr. Carter was in obvious serious medical distress. Dr. Braco refused to allow Mr. Carter's emergency transfer to the hospital, saying he would evaluate him on his regular rounds later that day. Only after pressure from officer at the jail, did defendants Dr. Braco and Bates finally relent and authorize Mr. Carter's transfer to a hospital, but only by patrol car. None of the patrol cars were equipped to handle a medical emergency.

That although it was common knowledge that failure to treat diabetes could result in diabetic ketoacidosis and death, defendant Dr. Braco ordered that Mr. Carter could only be transferred to the hospital using a regular patrol car because he didn't want to incur the $1000 bill for an ambulance. Defendant Bates Later in the day jail officers, alarmed at Carter’s condition, demanded Bates summon an ambulance, which Gordon said she refused to do. She eventually called Braco and told him Carter was in medical distress, but Braco refused his transfer to hospital.

“Only after pressure from the jail did defendants Dr. Braco and Bates finally relent and authorize Mr. Carter’s transfer to a hospital, but only by patrol car,” said Gordon, writing in the lawsuit. “... Although it was common knowledge that failure to treat diabetes could result in diabetic ketoacidosis and death, defendant Dr. Braco ordered that Mr. Carter could only be transferred to hospital using a regular patrol car, because he didn’t want to incur the $1,000 bill for an ambulance. Defendant Bates agreed.”

Nearly three hours after being forcibly removed from the medical unit, and denied ambulatory transport to the hospital, Mr. Carter died, alone, in a segregated jail cell due to diabetes ketoacid [MORE]