CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A judge in Kanawha County Circuit Court has approved a partial settlement in the 2023 death of an inmate at the North Central Regional Jail.
The judge approved a $700,000 partial settlement to Calwell Luce di Trapano, PLLC, Forbes Law Offices, PLLC, and John & Werner Law Offices, PLLC, in the death of Nathan Kennedy, 48. Kennedy suffered from substance abuse disorder and had been arrested and taken to the jail after a fight with his roommate.
Kennedy’s attorney Jesse Forbes said Kennedy was dead within three hours of being transported to the facility. He said this case is similar to the case of Zachary Bailey, who was beaten to death in the intake area of the jail in 2019. His family was awarded $1 million in damages from the West Virginia Department of Correction and Rehabilitation.
“Something has got to change,” Forbes said last week on WAJR’s “Talk of the Town.” “The only thing that drives that change is when their insurance carriers and their own insurance fund has to start paying, and the hope is they’ll go into some of these facilities and change something.”
Forbes said when Kennedy arrived at the facility in Doddridge County he was not offered any initial evaluation or care for withdrawal symptoms. Kennedy was immediately placed in a cage inside the holding area, and he began to call for help. Kennedy was then pepper sprayed and then placed him in handcuffs inside the cage and left him with no care.
“Instead of providing him help the guards and the medical staff present pepper-sprayed him inside the small cage, then handcuffed him and left him in the cage with no decontamination of the pepper spray,” Forbes said.
When Kennedy began to shake the cage, he was taken out of the cage into an area with no surveillance camera where Forbes said he was beaten. He was put back into one of the cages and fitted with a spit mask with no medical care. About an hour into the confrontation with the guards and medical staff, Kennedy has not been decontaminated or offered any care; he is then placed into a restraint chair and tased.
Forbes said Kennedy then died in a “medieval torture chamber” and not a properly operated correctional facility.
“They’ve now put a mask on him like what you would see in a Hannibal Lecter movie,” Forbes said. “They put a mask on this man and tie him to a restraint chair, where they then begin tasing him while he is restrained.”
Forbes said more than 15 inmates have died at NCRJ in the last six years. He said the state is taking steps to shut down efforts to hold them accountable.
“The state actually has petitions pending with the West Virginia Supreme Court trying to argue that these causes of action don’t exist,” Forbes said. “Despite the fact that we have handled these cases for well over a decade.”
According to Forbes, anyone can make a mistake—a DUI or arrest for a misdemeanor—and the job of the correctional system is there to house people while their cases are heard. Forbes said no one who makes a mistake should die in custody while waiting for justice.
“Whatever it might be, people make mistakes, and the correctional system is there to try to correct that,” Forbes said. “It’s not supposed to be there to torcher people and ignore their medical needs until they die.”
Forbes said they plan to sue the medical provider, Wexford Health Sources, on behalf of the Kennedy family next.