TULSA, Okla. (AP) - Tulsa County’s former sheriff says an inmate who died after five days in the local jail in 2011 wasn’t mentally assessed because he was “acting up.”
Former Sheriff Stanley Glanz testified Wednesday in a federal civil rights lawsuit that alleges 37-year-old Elliott Williams broke his neck but was ignored by jail staff despite insisting he was paralyzed, the Tulsa World (https://bit.ly/2mPcRVx ) reported.
An inmate reported that Williams rammed his head into a door shortly after being placed in the holding cell. The state medical examiner concluded that Williams was dehydrated when he died in October 2011 of “injuries due to blunt force trauma.”
Glanz said he didn’t have a problem with skipping the evaluation because of Williams’ behavior, despite arresting officers reporting that Williams was suicidal. Glanz said Williams wasn’t on suicide watch, which requires constant supervision, but said jail staff could observe him at all times.
The attorney for Williams’ estate, Dan Smolen, asked the former sheriff how of often inmates fail to go through the booking process. Glanz said it happens “two to three times a week in that facility.” He said many inmates are intoxicated when arrested, which some jail staff believed Williams to be.
A private company operated the Tulsa Jail for a five-year period during Glanz’s tenure, according to records. In that time, the Tulsa County Social Services received about a 100 referrals a week for potential mental health patients.
But when the sheriff’s office regained control of the jail in 2005, the referrals stopped. Former Undersheriff Tim Albin previously said the program “got lost in the shuffle.”
Glanz resigned as sheriff in 2015, after being indicted on a misdemeanor charge related to a reserve deputy’s fatal shooting of an unarmed man.
Glanz was originally named in the lawsuit in both his individual and official capacities. After his resignation, Glanz was dropped as a defendant in his official capacity.
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Information from: Tulsa World, https://www.tulsaworld.com
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