CHARLESTON — U.S. Magistrate Judge Omar J. Aboulhosn heard testimony earlier this week in a federal class-action lawsuit alleging evidence was destroyed regarding inhumane treatment at Southern Regional Jail.
Beckley attorney Stephen P. New represents the plaintiffs. During the evidentiary hearing this week, New questioned Executive Officer Brad Douglas regarding what the defendants did and didn't do after at least a dozen evidence preservation letters had been sent in 2022 from his firm.
Douglas, who took over for Betsey Jividen when she resigned in August 2022, testified that though he was aware of the anticipated litigation and he had no excuse for certain evidence, like emails and cell phones, he wasn't thinking at the time.
The department, however, did enact a new policy last week to preserve evidence.
"It was poor practice and poor procedure and we're trying to fix it," Douglas said, according to WCHS-TV.
Several key officials, including former SRJ Superintendent Michael Francis; Jividen; and former SRJ Chief Correctional Officer Larry Warden, all retired or resigned before the lawsuits in 2022 were filed and their email addresses and Google drives were all deprovisioned after they left their jobs. Because of this, their accounts were permanently deleted, losing all the information they held, after 30 days.
Aboulhosn said during the hearing that he was struggling to wrap his head around what had happened.
"This is serious stuff here. I'm trying to wrap my head around how we are sitting here with all of these policies and procedures to preserve records," Aboulhosn said, according to WCHS-TV.
Other witnesses testified as well, with Phil Sword, the general counsel for DHS contending that New was actually at fault for the evidence not being preserved because his office didn't provide hard drivers to the state for that information, which Aboulhosn disagreed with, even noting that the state had a $1.8 billion surplus and could've purchased the needed hard drive to preserve the evidence.
The lawsuit, filed in 2022, was filed against Jividen, Francis, Warden, Douglas and Jeff Sandy, as well as several county commissions, employees of those commissions, Primecare Medical and Wexford Health Sources.
The federal lawsuit alleges that SRJ was overcrowded, forcing some inmates to sleep on the floor in two-person cells because there were regularly as many as six people in the cell at one time.
It also claimed inmates were sometimes forced to sleep on the dayroom floor of a pod, which exposed them to health risks and some were even assaulted and raped because they were not protected by a locked cell.
Cells regularly did not have running water or drinking fountains that worked, leaving them without access to drinking water for hours. Leaking water from broken sinks and toilets was also an ongoing problem, which caused issues for inmates, according to the suit.
"The presence of black mold at SRJ is a widespread and ongoing problem," the complaint states. "The black mold at SRJ is in inmate cells, inmate showers, air vents, and grows on the clothing of inmates."
Nothing is ever done to remedy the persistent black mold problem at SRJ, other than having inmate trustees paint over it, according to the suit.
"Several inmate pods at SRJ are also infested with rodents and rodent feces," the complaint states. "Some areas of SRJ are infested with ants or other insects. ... Aside from the black mold, rodents, and insects, inmate cells at SRJ are unnecessarily filthy and create a denigrating environment for inmates to be housed in."
There was also frequent spoiled food, broken lights, improper disciplinary measures, inadequate safety, neglectful medical care and the inability to file grievances.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number: 5:22-cv-00405
