Arkansas county agrees to $3 million settlement over detainee’s 2021 death in jail

FORT SMITH, Ark. (AP) — A county in western Arkansas has approved a $3 million settlement with the family of a man who died from dehydration and malnutrition while being held in a local jail.

The Sebastian County Quorum Court on Tuesday unanimously and without discussion voted to settle the lawsuit filed over the 2021 death of Larry Eugene Price Jr. at the county jail, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

An attorney for the county did not immediately respond to an email late Wednesday afternoon from The Associated Press. An attorney for the Price family declined to comment.

Price died after being held a little over a year at the facility awaiting trial on a terroristic threatening charge. Price, 51, who had a history of serious mental illness, had been held in solitary confinement at the county facility, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit filed last year against Sebastian County accused the jail and its medical provider of neglecting Price as he ate and drank less over the course of a year and his weight dropped from 185 pounds (84 kilograms) to 90 pounds (41 kilograms). The lawsuit accused the jail and its medical provider of violating Price’s constitutional rights.

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The parties in June requested that the case be referred to a settlement conference.

An attorney for the provider, Oklahoma-based Turn Key Health Clinics, told the AP it had also entered into a settlement but could not comment until the terms were finalized.

Jail staff discontinued Price’s mental health medications after he refused to take them, the lawsuit said, and didn’t make any effort to follow up with the inmate to address his mental health needs.

According to the lawsuit, inspections at the jail over the years identified problems such as overcrowding, understaffing and inadequate space at the county facility.

Price was arrested in August 2020 after he walked into the Fort Smith Police Department and threatened officers while pointing his finger as if her were pulling an imaginary trigger, the lawsuit said. Price, who also had a developmental disability, was homeless at the time of his arrest.