Judge Dismisses Suit Of Wheatland Man Who Suffered Brain Damage In Jail

A federal court judge has dismissed the case of a Wheatland man who sued Platte County Sheriff’s Deputies last year, for sending him to jail rather than the hospital despite his 0.357% blood-alcohol content.

Bryan Hays had a withdrawal seizure in the jail’s shower, sustaining brain damage and facial damage, his original lawsuit complaint from last April says. That document also says Hays had to re-learn how to walk over the course of several weeks, after spending one week in a coma.

U.S. District Court Judge Scott Skavdahl judged half of the case in the deputies’ favor last week, saying Hays’ claims of false arrest and deputies’ alleged “deliberate indifference” toward his health didn’t carry enough evidence to overcome the deputies’ legal defense of qualified immunity.

That's a legal protection that applies to law enforcement officers, and which a plaintiff can only overcome by showing the officer violated a clearly-established constitutional right.

With no federal civil claims remaining, the other two state-law claims Hays filed won’t remain in Skavdahl’s court, the judge said. But Skavdahl opted to dismiss those “without prejudice,” so Hays can re-word his lawsuit and refile it if he wishes.

Skavdahl took issue with what he characterized as shortcomings in the laws around cruel and unusual punishment. Court records show that Hays should not have been booked into jail without a medical release because his blood alcohol content was above 0.300%, according to jail policy. 

But under the laws as they now are, the deputies win their qualified immunity argument, the judge concluded.

TikTok

Hays, now a recovering alcoholic, was still in the throes of his alcoholism in early 2023 when he met a person on TikTok whom he believed to be a woman – but who was actually a scammer, court documents say.

The person conned Hays into cashing a $4,850 check that turned out to be fraudulent, overdrawing Hays’ bank account.

Platte County Deputy Cody Keller arrested Hays for check fraud and theft on April 23, 2023, and the man was booked into the local detention center, documents say.

Hays told Keller he’d only had “two or three beers” that afternoon, and his physical and conversational functions appeared normal during booking, related Skavdahl in his account of the evidence.  

Hays said he needed to start “detoxing” from alcohol, and he also worried aloud about other long-term health conditions he may have had, the judge wrote.

Deputy Jordyn Pearson heard these concerns and said they’d put Hays in a “detox cell” and give him “Gatorade and whatnot,” and that a nurse would be there in the morning to address his other health concerns.

A portable breath test indicated a 0.357% blood-alcohol content, notes Skavdahl’s summary.

The Platte County Detention Center at the time required all new detainees with a BAC over 0.300% to receive a medical release from a doctor before being booked. Pearson knew of the policy, the judge added.

The document says that about 40 hours after Hays was booked he suffered a withdrawal seizure in the shower, fell, hit his head on the tile floor, and sustained serious facial damage and head injuries.

Qualified Immunity

Though Hays initially waged a false imprisonment claim, he conceded the evidence didn’t support that. But he insisted his lawsuit would still be valid on his claim that Pearson showed “deliberate indifference” to Hays’ health while he was in custody.

To overcome the defense of qualified immunity, Hays would have had to show that Pearson violated a constitutional right, and that that right was clearly established.

He did not overcome that test, Skavdahl wrote.

Courts have long held that “deliberate indifference” to a prisoner’s serious medical needs is cruel and unusual punishment – and therefore a violation of a right.

But to prove a deputy did that, the plaintiff has to show that the deputy showed some fault worse than gross negligence, in this case a medical need so serious that even a lay person would easily recognize the need for a doctor’s attention.

Pearson not following the jail policy doesn’t vault his actions above that level of negligence, wrote Skavdahl.

Hays had insisted he only had two or three beers, for example, “certainly not enough to warrant obvious medical treatment,” wrote Skavdahl. Hays’ insistence he needed to go to a hospital for other, long-term health woes also didn’t advance his case that he had some medical emergency, the judge added.

Hays wasn’t slurring his words, didn’t show balance or movement issues, responded appropriately to questions and engaged in conversation with multiple deputies, and changed into jail clothes without help.

This detail reveals a potential issue with case law surrounding cruel and unusual punishment, the judge noted. On the one hand, the deputies couldn’t tell the man was in serious need of medical attention while being booked, because he seemed physically competent.

On the other hand, it’s the most hardened alcoholics and drug users who seem physically competent while intoxicated, but who are prone to suffer the most from later withdrawals, wrote the judge.

“The current state of the law seems to disadvantage the serious alcohol or drug abuser when they may be the most in need of medical intervention upon arrest,” wrote Skavdahl. “Detainees who function relatively normally (while intoxicated)… are more likely to be denied timely medical treatment.”

But, added the judge, “they are the ones most likely to suffer serious and dangerous withdrawal thereafter.”

Hays’ case “underscores the importance of jail officials following policies that are designed to protect such detainees.”

Hays’ attorney Colin Simpson did not respond by Wednesday to a Tuesday text-message request for comment from Cowboy State Daily.

Platte County Sheriff David Russell on Wednesday told Cowboy State Daily his office’s only comment is, “We’re just glad it’s done for now.”

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.