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Left: Troy Allen Pownell, left, with his father Troy Dean Pownell (right, in Nike shirt). Right: Pownell on the floor of the Tippecanoe County Jail before his death (images courtesy Wagner-Reese, LLP).
The family of a man who died in an Indiana jail is suing the sheriff and jail staff after his repeated pleas for help were allegedly met with statements such as “stop being a p—y” and “you”re not getting a free ride to the hospital today.”
Troy Dean Pownell’s family filed the lawsuit Monday in federal court in Indiana against Tippecanoe County Sheriff Robert Goldsmith and several jail staff members. The lawsuit accuses the jail and its staff of deliberate indifference and negligence.
“Individuals in a county jail are entirely dependent on jail officers and nurses to provide emergency medical care,” attorneys Stephen M. Wagner and Susannah Hall-Justice said in a statement. “When jail personnel deliberately ignore a sick inmate under their care, they run afoul of the U.S. Constitution and should be held accountable.”
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The lawsuit was filed by Pownell’s 18-year-old son, Troy Allen Pownell, who was appointed as administrator of his father’s estate.
Troy Dean Pownell, 38, was arrested on April 2, 2024, for missing a court date for his drug-related case. When he entered the jail he told staff he felt fine and had no health issues. But his health began to deteriorate the next day when he started to feel “physical discomfort” which limited his movements, according to the complaint. His condition worsened on April 6 when his started dry heaving and feeling pain in his stomach. By April 7, he began complaining about “severe abdominal pain,” the lawsuit said.
The next day, his fellow inmates at the jail began raising concerns with jail staff, plaintiff lawyers stated. But medical staff was allegedly slow to respond and when they did, their actions were insufficient. A nurse found Pownell in his cell, laying on the floor, pale and sweating excessively, per the suit. Pownell told her about the abdominal pain and the nurse noted he had an abnormal heart rate and his pupils were slow to respond, the lawsuit stated.
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Pownell mentioned that he used heroin not long before his arrival at the jail. The nurse “disregarded Troy’s serious abdominal pain, instead insisting it was simply a symptom of drug withdrawal,” plaintiff lawyers wrote. Staff took Pownell to the medical unit where he had X-rays of his abdomen. Nurses continued to treat Pownell as if he were going through drug withdrawal, giving him electrolytes. But his lawyers noted that peak symptoms of withdrawal happen one to three days after last drug use; Pownell’s peak symptoms, however, didn’t start until nearly his sixth day in jail, the lawyers say.
“It was obvious on April 8, 2024, that Troy was suffering from a serious medical condition other than drug withdrawal,” the lawsuit said.
But his repeated pleas to go to the hospital fell on deaf ears, his lawyers claim. One nurse allegedly wrote in her notes that she thought he was “faking” it.
Wagner and Hall-Justice write that their client was exhibiting signs of a perforated ulcer, but nurses continued to believe he was undergoing opioid withdrawal.
“You’re not getting a free ride to the hospital today,” a nurse said to Pownell, according to the suit.
Pownell and other inmates continued to push the call button for help, but their calls were ignored and they were told the button was “for emergencies only.” At one point a guard allegedly told Pownell to “stop being a p—y.”
The X-ray findings came back around 5:30 p.m. April 8. They showed a “nonobstructive abdominal bowel gas pattern,” his lawyers said. By that point he was “curled up in a ball” and kept vomiting.
Around 7:30 p.m., he began to have a seizure. Staff took him out of his cell and he was “cold to the touch and had no pulse.”
“It took 1 hour and 33 minutes from the time that [Pownell’s cellmate] began to press the call button again around 6 p.m. until anyone finally arrived to assist Troy, who was dying,” plaintiff lawyers write.
Paramedics rushed Pownell to the hospital, but it was too late. Doctors pronounced him dead.
A coroner determined his official cause of death was sepsis due to a “perforated duodenal ulcer, with cirrhosis of the liver contributing.”
“Troy died a slow and painful death,” Wagner and Hall-Justice wrote.
Troy Allen Pownell said through his lawyers that his father’s medical complaints should have been taken seriously.
“I miss my dad every day and just wish they would have helped him when it was so obvious that he needed to go to the hospital,” he said. “We hope this case helps change how people with medical problems are treated when they are in jail. Rest in peace, Dad.”
Goldsmith did not immediately return a message for comment.
