New lawsuit over county jail care

A new lawsuit says Charleston County’s jail failed to protect a Michigan man whose depression worsened for months before he died by suicide in April 2024. (abcnews4.com) The suit was filed by Shawn Kreider, acting for the estate of Forrest Michael Kreider, against the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, jail medical contractor VitalCore Health Strategies, and physician Meenakshi Parmar. It alleges negligence, wrongful death and medical malpractice tied to care at the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center. (abcnews4.com, abcnews4.com) Forrest Kreider was arrested on January 7, 2024, on an assault and battery charge and held on a $30,000 bond, according to the lawsuit and jail records cited by ABC News 4. The complaint says he asked for help on February 12, reported feeling helpless and depressed again on February 19, and was not seen by a doctor until April 22. (abcnews4.com, abcnews4.com) The lawsuit says Parmar diagnosed Kreider with bipolar disorder on April 22 and prescribed Remeron, with a follow-up set six weeks later. Two days later, on April 24, 2024, he died after deputies found him unresponsive on April 23 and emergency crews restored a pulse before he was taken to the Medical University of South Carolina. (abcnews4.com) The case lands while the jail is already under a federal civil-rights investigation opened by the U.S. Department of Justice on November 2, 2023. Federal investigators said they were examining medical and mental-health care, use of isolation, use of force, and whether the jail discriminates against people with disabilities. (justice.gov, justice.gov) The sheriff’s office has argued for years that medical care problems were tied to the county’s contracted provider and long-running staffing shortages inside the detention center. In a March 30, 2023 public records release, the office said it had pushed county officials for better jail health care and said the facility remained nationally accredited. (charlestoncounty.org) Charleston County’s sheriff website now says VitalCore provides inmate medical services at the jail and that medical staff are on-site 24 hours a day, with daily access to mental-health care, sick calls and chronic-care treatment. That description is at the center of the new lawsuit’s claim that warning signs were missed anyway. (charlestoncounty.org, abcnews4.com) The Kreider case is not the only recent lawsuit over care in the jail. The Post and Courier reported this week that another man sued after a mouth injury allegedly went untreated in custody, while ABC News 4 and community activists have tied a string of inmate deaths to broader complaints about medical neglect and suicide prevention at Al Cannon. (postandcourier.com, abcnews4.com) What happens next is more concrete than the allegations: the defendants will have to answer the complaint in court, and the federal investigation remains open. The lawsuit asks for damages and a jury trial over what Kreider’s family says happened inside the county jail. (abcnews4.com, justice.gov)