Settlement for lawsuit alleging jail negligence

A judge in Walhalla will be asked this month to accept a settlement in a lawsuit alleging negligence in the Oconee Detention Center.  The morning of Friday, February 26 is scheduled as a settlement hearing in the case of Erica Smalley versus Southern Health Partners, the healthcare provider for the county jail.  Suit was filed three years ago on behalf of Erica Smalley, as personal representative of the estate of Ernest Lee Smalley Jr.  The plaintiff seeks $5 million in actual damages, alleging that Mr. Smalley died in October 2015 – and these are words from the pleadings – “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 alcohol addiction.  The lawsuit alleged “the Defendants did not give him the proper care and treatment for that illness.”  Scheduled to preside at the settlement hearing is 10th Circuit Judge Scott Sprouse.