Bruce Vielmetti

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Milwaukee County Jail commander who lied during the investigation into inmate Terrill Thomas' dehydration death in 2016 was sentenced Friday to nine months of what will likely be house arrest.

Former Sheriff's Maj. Nancy Evans will have three weeks to report to the House of Correction, where it is expected she will be fitted with an electronic tracking bracelet.

Circuit Judge Joseph Wall first prescribed generous release privileges then added that he was approving any other privileges, without limit, that the House of Correction staff deemed appropriate. And because Evans once supervised the facility, it might be problematic that she serve her time there.

Evans, 49, was the highest ranking of three jail officials charged in 2018 months after an inquest jury into Thomas' death had recommended seven jail staff be prosecuted.

RELATED:Former commander, 2 staffers charged in dehydration death of Terrill Thomas in Milwaukee County Jail

Wall said he disagreed with the prosecutor's assertion that Evans essentially tried to cover up a homicide, and he repeatedly stated that none of her acts or omissions led to Thomas' death.

Assistant District Attorney Kurt Benkley suggested otherwise, that Evans' poor leadership, training and supervision of staff created the conditions where a guard could turn off the water to a cell and not tell anyone else and where no one would notice for a week. He recommended incarceration of a duration decided by the judge.

Evans' attorney, Robert Webb Jr., recommended 12 to 15 months of probation, with 30 days of jail time suspended. He said Evans did accept responsibility for her subordinates' actions by resigning.

Evans did not speak at the sentencing but submitted a written statement to the judge in which she stated sympathy and regret about what happened to Thomas, but does not admit or explain lying.

A week before her scheduled trial in February, Evans pleaded no contest to misconduct in office, a felony.

During the April 2017 inquest into Thomas' death, Evans, who oversaw daily operations at the jail, fielded pointed questions about whether she misled investigators and failed to preserve key evidence after he died.

Prosecutors focused on the disappearance of four days' worth of vital surveillance video and conflicting statements Evans gave investigators.

The criminal complaint against Evans said her conduct of "withholding information from her superiors, lying to her supervisors, failing to preserve evidence, repeatedly lying to law enforcement investigators and lying at the inquest constituted misconduct in public office."

A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation exposed details of Thomas' death, including incomplete investigative work by the Milwaukee Police Department, which had neglected to interview fellow inmates who witnessed Thomas' death. Detectives interviewed additional witnesses once the Journal Sentinel reported the lapses.

A former jail lieutenant, Kashka Meadors, pleaded no contest to a felony prisoner abuse charge in October and was sentenced in February to 60 days in the House of Correction.

RELATED:Guard charged in death of a Milwaukee County Jail inmate followed order to shut off water, attorney says

Earlier this month, former correctional officer James Ramsey-Guy was sentenced to 30 days in the House of Correction, with work-release privileges. He is scheduled to begin his sentence Monday.

Ramsey-Guy, 39, had been charged with abusing a resident of a penal facility, a felony. But after two days of testimony at his trial in January, he pleaded guilty to obstructing an officer, a misdemeanor, based on his testimony under oath at a 2017 inquest into Thomas' death.

He had followed Meadors order to cut off the water to Thomas' cell. Thomas had been transferred to a segregation unit after causing a flood in a different pod. Ramsey-Guy didn't log the action or inform the incoming shift he shut off the water to Thomas.

Because Thomas suffered from mental illness, he couldn't tell jailers that his water was never turned back on. He was found dead in his cell a week later.

Though Ramsey-Guy admitted to investigators he had turned off the water, at the inquest he testified three times that it was only the cold water. In fact, both hot and cold water had been shut off.

RELATED:Terrill Thomas estate said to be receiving about $6.7 million to resolve jail dehydration case

Thomas, 38, was arrested in April 2016 after he ran into the Potawatomi Casino, yelling and ordering patrons to "get out."

He fired two rounds and stuffed poker chips into his pockets. Confronted by police, he dropped the Glock 9mm handgun into a trash can and was arrested. His family said they believe he was having a psychotic episode.

New policies at the jail require that if an inmate's water has been shut off over flooding, he or she must be offered water every hour.

Two criminal cases remain pending against Armor Correctional Health Services, the company that provided medical services at the jail under a contract with the county that ends in April.

RELATED:Company considered for Milwaukee County inmate medical services contract comes with problem-filled baggage of its own

Contact Bruce Vielmetti at (414) 224-2187 or bvielmetti@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ProofHearsay.