State police start investigation of Jamycheal Mitchell’s death as inmates named in lawsuit claim guards harassed them

By Gary A. Harki | The Virginian-Pilot | June 22, 2016 6:00 PM

PORTSMOUTH

More than 10 months after Jamycheal Mitchell died in the Hampton Roads Regional Jail, Virginia State Police announced they are investigating his death.

Until now, no state, local or federal agency had started a formal investigation into how Mitchell died.

The announcement comes as four inmates claim guards harassed them after they were named in a lawsuit filed by the Mitchell family. Their claims are laid out in a Tuesday federal court filing asking that they be protected from further harassment.

“The officer told me the other day that I was walking the green mile and I’m a dead man walking,” inmate Jade Johnson wrote in May to Mark Krudys, the lawyer for Mitchell’s family.

In the family’s lawsuit, Johnson and the other inmates said they saw corrections officers abuse Mitchell in the weeks leading up to his death.

Johnson wrote to Krudys that the officers in his unit had dealt with Mitchell and that they tried to bribe him and other inmates not to testify against them.

Krudys, who filed the protection motion, declined to comment for this story.

The allegations in the motion include:

• Threats of physical harm by guards against inmates and their families.
• Denial of medication, food and showers.
• Tampering with food.

The filing also contains letters from the inmates to Krudys and from Krudys to the jail.

Two of the inmates named in the filing have been transferred to Western Tidewater Regional Jail in Suffolk. Two remain at Hampton Roads Regional Jail.

“Mr. Krudy (sic) I’m trying to get out of this jail because I don’t feel safe,” inmate Steven Gray wrote. “Please try and help me because I don’t know who to trust here.”

Hampton Roads Regional Jail Superintendent David Simons, who said he will retire in October, was alerted to the allegations in May and failed “to adequately address the matter,” Mitchell’s family claims in the filing.

In an interview Wednesday, Simons said the claims are unsubstantiated.

“I had an investigator meet with all four,” he said. “Only two expressed any concerns, and they were moved.”

Simons said none of the four could give a specific time when the alleged harassment happened. He said he plans to provide the court with audio and video recordings of the inmates and any other evidence.

Simons became superintendent in April 2011. He was previously superintendent of the Western Tidewater Regional Jail and was an assistant superintendent at Hampton Roads Regional Jail from 1997 to 2008.

Norfolk Sheriff Bob McCabe said Simons notified the jail’s board in writing at its meeting last week of his plans to retire. McCabe, who is on the board, also said he was aware of the inmates’ allegations.

“Although allegations made by jail inmates are often unfounded, each and every one are to be taken serious,” he said. “I have spoken to Superintendent Simons to make sure he understands the gravity of these allegations. He and his staff have assured the board that they are aware and continue to take all allegations serious.”

The lawsuit filed by Mitchell’s family quotes one inmate as saying Mitchell was treated “like a circus animal.” Mitchell was dragged, sprayed with Mace and beaten by jail officers prior to his death, the lawsuit claims. It also alleges guards verbally abused and mocked him.

Mitchell was arrested in April 2015 for stealing $5 worth of snacks from a convenience store. He died that August in a regional jail cell that allegedly had feces on the walls and urine on the floor after having lost significant weight.

Before the state police’s announcement Wednesday, Portsmouth had done an initial investigation into Mitchell’s death and the FBI had said it will wait to see whether state police find any federal civil rights violations. However, state police have said they are not looking into that.

Krudys’ May and June letters about purported harassment of the inmates were sent to the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights division, the FBI, state Attorney General Mark Herring and Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Morales.

Mitchell’s aunt, Roxanne Adams, is named as the plaintiff in the $60 million suit, which was filed last month in U.S. District Court. It lists about 40 defendants, including guards from the jail, its board, Simons and the jail’s medical care provider at the time of Mitchell’s death, NaphCare.

Enclosed in the Tuesday filing are handwritten letters from the inmates. In a June 8 letter, inmate David Hurst said he was interviewed at the jail by state police two days earlier. After that, he was moved to a segregated unit. He asked to be moved to the Norfolk City Jail.

“I am not (receiving) no medication/mental health medications or treatment now that my 28 day med card is up because I am told ‘Mr. Hurst you are on a (courtesy) hold; only your local jail needs to provide you your medications,’ ” Hurst’s letter says.

Hurst is now at the Western Tidewater Regional Jail. His lawyer, Norfolk assistant public defender Caswell Richardson, says he is now trying to get him moved to Norfolk’s jail because his medical needs are not being met.

The filing also includes a letter from Krudys to Simons dated May 11, just after the lawsuit was filed. Krudys claimed then that three of the inmates were targeted by correctional officers “with threats, denials of food and other wrongful and abusive practices.”

On May 20, Krudys again wrote Simons and said he had been contacted by Jeff Rosen, a lawyer for the jail, and told that three of the four inmates said “they did not feel unsafe.”

But Krudys, who is not a lawyer for the four, said in the May 20 letter that all three were still concerned for their safety.

“As I advised you in our recent telephone conversation, the jail staff interviewed the inmates referenced in your initial letter to the Superintendent concerning their safety; only one inmate expressed a desire to be moved to another facility and that inmate was relocated,” Rosen said.

Krudys claims in the lawsuit that Hampton Roads Regional Jail maintains a level of control over the two inmates who were moved to Western Tidewater by paying for the cost of housing them.

“HRRJ may also be responsible for providing medications for these two inmates – which is apparently not being done,” he wrote.

Jail board member and Newport News Sheriff Gabe Morgan said he was concerned about the allegations, although based on his experience he said some inmates make unfounded complaints. He said he did not know about the four inmates’ allegations until The Virginian-Pilot called him.

“Anytime there is an allegation of mistreatment, I am very concerned,” he said. “I personally ask for answers.”

Simons said that he and the jail need to be more open about what happened to Mitchell. The jail did everything right, he said. He said that Mitchell’s cell was kept clean.

“I think by defending our decision to keep all the evidence close to the vest may have created a negative public perception,” Simons said. “However, the more me or any organization looks into the conduct of the officers or treatment of any inmate, they’ll find that we did everything right. This is a mental health problem, not a jail problem.”

He said the jail would likely release more information in the coming days.

Mitchell was transferred around May 11, 2015, to Hampton Roads Regional Jail.

He weighed 182 pounds at the time, the lawsuit claims. He weighed 144 pounds during a post-death examination.

Simons said that, while they normally weigh inmates when they come in, Mitchell was not weighed that day because he was uncooperative. The weight recorded that day actually came from a previous incarceration in May 2012.

The cause of death in Mitchell’s autopsy was determined to be “probable cardiac arrhythmia accompanying wasting syndrome of unknown etiology.”

Simons said that doesn’t mean he wasted away in the jail. He said Mitchell weighed 145 pounds when he was taken to Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center on July 30, less than three weeks before he died.

“He was nourished and fully hydrated and he had a medical or mental health condition that caused the wasting, but that doesn’t mean necessarily he was malnourished,” Simons said.

Gary A. Harki, 757-446-2370, gary.harki@pilotonline.com Follow @GaryAHarki on Twitter.

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