Negligence suit against Oconee jail and health care provider

A multi-million dollar lawsuit has been filed against the Oconee Detention Center and Southern Health Partners, the health care provider for the county jail. The suit alleging negligence was filed Friday at Walhalla and seeks actual damages in the amount of $5 million from the jail’s health care contractor, along with punitive damages to be set by an Oconee Common Pleas jury. The plaintiff is Erica Smalley, personal representative of the estate of Ernest Lee Smalley Jr. The pleadings in the lawsuit identify Mr. Smalley as the Oconee jail inmate who died in October 2015—and this is the wording in the suit—“as a result of the Defendants not following proper procedure and not keeping the defendant under medical observation.” According to the lawsuit, Mr. Smalley was arrested October 22, 2015 on a bench warrant, but was suffering from an illness of addiction to alcohol and “the Defendants did not give him the proper care and treatment for that illness.”