Inmate Denied Adequate Medical Care by Scandal-Scarred Virginia Department of Corrections Can Pursue Damages

VERONA, Va., Aug. 9, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- A federal judge has ruled that a lawsuit filed by a former inmate who was denied any treatment for his chronic Hepatitis C while at a Chesapeake, Virginia, state prison can continue to trial.

Doctors at the St. Brides Correctional Center inhumanely denied the inmate, Obie Lovelace, treatment for his Hepatitis C -- despite definitive medical evidence that Mr. Lovelace's condition had led to stage 4 cirrhosis of the liver -- because it was too expensive, according the lawsuit. Mr. Lovelace, who was diagnosed with Hepatitis C first in 2004, claims because VDOC left the condition untreated he developed stage 4 cirrhosis. Hepatitis C can be cured but cirrhosis is not in half the cases of people being treated for Hepatitis C, the lawsuit noted.

There was "no medical reason" for VDOC to withhold necessary and effective treatment, Mr. Lovelace argues in the complaint. The lawsuit against VDOC was funded by Nexus Services, of Verona, Virginia, a company that fights for to defend the constitutional rights of prisoners.

"The horrendous treatment of Mr. Lovelace is the latest in a long list of constitutional violations committed by the Virginia Department of Corrections – and I am calling on Governor Northam to rein in this out-of-control agency, an agency which through its malfeasance disproportionately abuses members of the African-American community. The Governor has expressed his commitment to standing up for the African-American community, and by reforming the DOC and eliminating the school-to-prison pipeline this Governor could create more positive change for Virginia's African-American community than any executive in the history of the Commonwealth," said Mike Donovan, the founder and chief executive of Nexus Services, which has funded lawsuits that have resulted in legal victories for prisoners across the country.

"This is a clear case of a prison system failing to provide basic levels of medical care," Donovan added. "I want to thank Judge Davis for seeing through VDOC's phony excuses." Nexus Services funds Nexus Derechos Humanos Attorneys Inc., which filed the lawsuit.

After entering the VDOC system in 2010, Mr. Lovelace repeatedly pleaded for the prison's medical staff to administer life-saving treatment but was denied, the lawsuit claims. Citing the denial of his constitutional right to adequate medical care, Mr. Lovelace filed suit on February 15, 2019, against Harold Clarke, the director of Virginia's Department of Corrections (VDOC), Dr. Mark Amonette, VDOC's chief physician and medical director, Dr. Steve Herrick, VDOC's director of Health Services, and Dr. Charles Campbell, Mr. Lovelace's treating physician.

Clarke, Amonette and Herrick asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, in part, because there is no specific legal precedent forcing prisons to treat inmates with Hepatitis C with the latest drugs available. But Federal Court Judge Mark S. Davis denied their request, saying if every medical condition afflicting an inmate needed a specific legal ruling, "officials would be free to decline any medical care" until such a court case was decided.

Dr. Campbell asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit because Mr. Lovelace failed to allege that he had a "serious medical condition." That argument, Judge Davis said in a 21-page order, "is rejected on its face."

In early 2017, with just nine months left before Mr. Lovelace's November release date, with his demands continuing to be treated with the latest medical protocol, called DAA drugs, the prison's medical staff callously told him it would take more than nine months for the DAA drugs to work. Mr. Lovelace's lawsuit claims the DAA protocol leads to a cure within "90 days or less."

Mr. Lovelace, a homeless senior citizen, his stage 4 cirrhosis and Hepatitis C left untreated, was released from St. Brides in November with all his worldly possessions in tow.

On July 19, a Nexus Services-funded lawsuit over the failure of a doctor at a different Virginia state prison to provide adequate medical care to an inmate resulted in a jury verdict of more than $1 million in favor of the former inmate.

Also, this year lawyers for a 39-year old inmate at Fluvanna Correctional Center filed a lawsuit against VDOC alleging inadequate medical care led to the woman's death.

Nexus Services, Inc. is a leading provider of immigrant bail securitization and electronic monitoring. The organization funds Nexus Derechos Humanos Attorneys, Inc. as a part of its corporate giving to increase access to justice for disadvantaged people across the United States. http://www.nexushelps.com/ 

Nexus Derechos Humanos Attorneys, Inc. is a pro bono civil-rights law firm committed to holding public officials accountable for placing money or politics above the lives of human beings, protecting due-process rights to be free from government coercion and demanding justice and enforcement of hard-won civil rights. http://www.ndhlawyers.com/ 

SOURCE Nexus Services

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