Family Files Lawsuit After Man Dies in Northern California Jail

A lawsuit filed by the family of a man who died after being held in a Northern California jail alleges he contracted a preventable viral infection there when its medical staff denied him critical HIV medication for two months. The family of Nicholas Overfield is suing Eldorado County Jail and its contracted health care provider, Wellpath Community C​​are, LLC as well as the County of El Dorado.

When Overfield was arrested in February 2022 for a failure to appear in court, he informed officers that he was HIV-positive and required antiretroviral medication to keep the virus in check, according to the court filing. His mother, Lesley Overfield, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, handed the arresting officers her son's prescribed medication but he was never administered it, the filing says.

The lawsuit says when Lesley Overfield visited her son on April 22nd, 2022, he “was so unwell and so diminished that he could not even speak to his mother.” She demanded “the jail provide Nick with the medical care he clearly needed” and he was rushed to a hospital that same evening, according to the filing. Overfield's health deteriorated rapidly as his HIV “devolved into AIDS" as he was detained without access to his medication, according to the complaint. He was first transferred to Barton Memorial Hospital in South Lake Tahoe, California, and was later transferred to a hospital in San Francisco for further treatment, the complaint says. He was eventually placed into hospice care, where he died on June 21st, 2022, according to the complaint.

Lesley Overfield said her son lost his ability to speak coherently and walk while in custody at the jail, and she said she pleaded with jail employees for answers.

"When they brought him into the visiting area, they wheeled him in a wheelchair," she said. "He was too weak to get up, so they had to help him out. And feed him at the visitor's booths. He was so disoriented and confused. He couldn't even figure out how to use the phone -- which you don't dial it. You just pick it up and put it to your ear. He was so weak. He couldn't do that."

This is not the first time Wellpath, a national health care provider that provides care to almost 500 correctional facilities, jails, and prisons across the country, has been investigated or faced allegations of substandard treatment of the care of the incarcerated persons they are contracted to serve. Allegations against the company has prompted criticism and concern from federal lawmakers.

Several Democratic lawmakers, including Senators Edward J. Markey, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, sent a letter last month to Wellpath raising concern over "reports of inadequate care at federal, state, and local prisons and jails."

“While some contracts increase Wellpath’s compensation for emergency services such as ambulance runs or decrease compensation for failures such as not triaging sick call requests, pay generally does not increase with the volume, quality, or complexity of medical services provided,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter. “Some Wellpath contracts also appear to incentivize the company to reduce the number of transfers to hospitals or to employ fewer staff members.”

You can read the full letter from Senators Markey, Warren, Sanders and nine additional Senators:

"Lawmakers raise concerns with Wellpath over inadequate health care services in prisons and jails nationwide"