Butler County sheriff sued over jail death

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones, the jail medical director, two corrections officers and the county have all been sued in federal court by the daughter of a woman who died in jail, apparently due to complications with opiate withdrawal.

Ruby Farley, 52, who was in jail on a contempt of court charge in March 2012, apparently was suffering from opiate withdrawal but jail guards allegedly did nothing to help her, according to the suit. The complaint filed by Farley’s daughter, Holly Candace McConnell, over a year ago alleges Farley threw up her lunch and starting “moaning and screaming for help.” At one point, she also fell down and hit her head on the floor, but a deputy just left her there, according to the complaint.

She was found dead in her cell and her daughter blames the sheriff and medical director Dr. Antony Abdullah for not implementing policies for dealing with addicted inmates and training staff among other things.

“Defendants county, Jones and Dr. Abdullah knew that failure to provide appropriate medical care to inmates suffering from drug and alcohol withdrawal put such prisoners at substantial risk of serious harm or death,” attorney Jennifer Branch wrote.

The suit claims civil rights violations, negligence, medical malpractice and wrongful death. The daughter is seeking unspecified damages.

Jones and Abdullah filed motions to dismiss, but Magistrate Stephanie Bowman, for the most part, refused. She did dismiss the negligence/malpractice claims against Jones because he is not a doctor, and the wrongful death claim against the sheriff in his official capacity but not individually.

“Plaintiff’s complaint alleges that ‘defendants knew that Ruby Farley was suffering from severe withdrawal symptoms and knew improper management of this condition could lead to Ms. Farley’s death,’” Bowman wrote. “This factual allegation pertains to all defendants, including individual defendants Jones and Abdullah and is sufficient to overcome defendants’ (dismissal) motions.”

The case is pending a ruling from the judge on the magistrate’s recommendation on the dismissal motions. The attorneys in the case could not be reached for comment.

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