10th Circuit affirms $33 million award against Oklahoma sheriff over death of pretrial detainee

DENVER (CN) — The 10th Circuit on Tuesday affirmed a jury’s $33 million judgment against the sheriff of Ottawa County, Oklahoma, over the preventable death of a pretrial detainee.

“On this record, we readily conclude substantial evidence — both direct and circumstantial —  shows Ottawa knew of a substantial risk of harm to Mr. Ellis and failed to take reasonable measures to abate that risk,” wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Veronica Rossman in an 87-page opinion.

When 26-year-old Terral Ellis turned himself into the Ottawa County Jail on Oct. 10, 2015, on a pending charge, he didn’t know he would be dead before Halloween. Over the course of the next week, his health drastically deteriorated, and though he said he felt like he was going to die, his calls for help were ignored and mocked by the jail nurse and staff.

On Oct. 22, Ellis died from sepsis due to untreated pneumonia, leaving behind a 2-year-old son.

Ellis’ family sued the county sheriff in his official capacity in 2017, arguing the jail violated Ellis’ Eighth Amendment rights by cutting corners on medical care to save money and telling staff to never trust the inmates. During the trial, Ellis’ family even claimed the jail’s assistant administrator and nurse tried to stage his death as a suicide, cooking up a story about him hanging himself with his blanket.

Following an eight-day trial in August 2023, a jury awarded Ellis’ family $33 million in compensatory damages. While punitive damages were not an available remedy, the family’s attorneys urged the jury to consider an amount that would deter future behavior.

On appeal, the sheriff asked for a new trial and argued the family’s closing argument amounted to pervasive misconduct.

“The district court found the emotional displays and reference to deterrence in closing argument ‘did not rise to the level of pervasive [misconduct],’” wrote Rossman, a Joe Biden appointee. “We agree. At most, Ottawa has alleged three instances of misconduct, amounting to just one transcript page of the Estate’s 30-page closing argument. This is not pervasive.”

In addition to the majority opinion, U.S. Circuit Judge Carolyn McHugh penned a 12-page concurring opinion on which Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Jerome Holmes joined.

Although McHugh supported “the excellent majority opinion in full,” she found the plaintiffs’ attorney had improperly asked the jury to award a judgment based “on deterring future misconduct.”

“Building on Burke, I would squarely hold that encouraging a jury in a § 1983 case to base an award of compensatory damages on deterrence — rather than compensating the plaintiff for pain, suffering and loss of familial relationships — is improper,” the Barack Obama appointee wrote.

Holmes was appointed by George W. Bush.

Attorney Robert Blakemore of the Tulsa firm Smolen Roytman represented Ellis’ estate.

The county was represented by attorney Alison Levine of Collins Zorn in Oklahoma City. Neither Levine nor the sheriff’s office immediately responded to an inquiry for comment.

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