Judge: Sevier County sheriff put taxpayers on the hook for damages in detainee's death

Jamie Satterfield | Knoxville

Show Caption Hide Caption Diseases plague inmates at Scott County Jail Inmates at the Scott County Jail are getting sick and at least one has died, a trio of federal lawsuits show.

Sevier County’s taxpayers remain on the financial hook for their sheriff’s decision to hire – on the cheap – the firm of a doctor with a history of shelling out opiates for money and then turning a blind eye when inmates started dying, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Pamela Reeves is refusing to dismiss a lawsuit filed against Sevier County Sheriff Ron “Hoss” Seals on behalf of the survivors of an inmate who died in March 2014 from a deadly mix of booze and opiates.

It is one of more than a half-dozen lawsuits Sevier County has faced since Seals put Dr. Robert Maughon, a Gatlinburg doctor and confessed criminal, in charge of the medical care of inmates in the Sevier County Jail. The contract with Maughon’s firm, First Med Inc., has since been rescinded.

Left to die

Samuel M. McGaw IV was so intoxicated when he showed up at the jail in March 2014 to be booked on pending misdemeanor charges he could barely walk, speak or even submit a urine sample. Jail video and testimony has shown the jail’s medical staff and the jailers knew it.

But McGaw was left in a cell alone with no medical care. He fell into a coma and died. Attorneys Weldon Patterson and Billy Rinnger are now suing in U.S. District Court.

Attorney Rhonda Bradshaw, on behalf of Seals and Sevier County’s taxpayers, tried to convince Reeves to toss out the lawsuit, but in a May decision, Reeves refused. The case is set for trial in July.

Reeves wrote that Seals chose to hire First Med Inc., despite the troubled history of Maughon, and then decided to cut costs through the use of licensed practical nurses – the least trained among medical staffing choices.

“Additional (evidence) reveals that the decision to staff the jail with LPNs, and to have those LPNs supervised by another LPN, was made by Sheriff Seals,” Reeves wrote.

Judge: Dying inmates ignored

Local jails are required to provide constitutionally adequate medical care for inmates, many of whom are accused but not convicted. But a USA TODAY NETWORK-Tennessee probe last year showed there is no governmental oversight to ensure the detainees receive necessary medical treatment.

Reeves wrote in her ruling that Seals did nothing to make sure First Med Inc., was providing decent medical care for detainees in his jail or even educate the firm’s staff on standards and procedures.

“Sheriff Seals acknowledged that First Med employees were never trained, nor were they responsible for reading the jail’s policies and procedures” she wrote. “Also, First Med never provided any medical training to jail staff. Sheriff Seals testified that because he relied upon First Med to provide medical services at the jail, he did not question or concern himself with how those services were being provided.”

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When inmates began dying under the care of First Med Inc., Reeves wrote, Chief Deputy Larry McMahan told jailers they could overrule a nurse’s medical decision but gave them no medical training. When Sevier County was slapped with five lawsuits in three years, the judge said, Seals did nothing.

“Sevier County never audited First Med, Inc., to ensure they were living up to their contractual requirements or that the medical services provided to the jail comported with constitutional standards,” she wrote.

Jail doctor a criminal

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First Med Inc., has reached undisclosed settlements in each of the lawsuits, including the one involving McGaw’s death, for the firm’s role in denying Sevier County detainees constitutionally sound medical treatment, records show.

Maughon, meanwhile, is facing federal prison after pleading guilty earlier this month to healthcare fraud for luring in the elderly and poor with promises of free allergy testing in a plot to bill government insurance programs for treatment he never provided.

Records show Maughon billed TennCare and Medicare $6.1 million for allergy treatments for the elderly and poor when, instead, he gave them “allergy drops” the FDA had labeled dubious. Maughon raked in $1.3 million in the scheme.

Maughon is a recovering addict fined two decades ago for doling out prescription painkillers to addicts. He was allowed by the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners to keep his license because he pursued treatment for his addiction.

He later opened First Med Inc., and established walk-in clinics in Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Morristown.

He is awaiting sentencing.

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The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals last year granted Sevier County jailers immunity in the McGaw case. The court ruled the jailers’ bosses didn’t train them to make medical decisions, so they were forced to rely upon Maughon’s staffers and shouldn’t be held liable.

But the court said the ruling didn’t apply to Seals and sent the case against the sheriff and Sevier County leaders back to Reeves’ court. She has now ordered the case to be tried.