|
Clackamas County Jail
Oct 6, 2018 koin.com
2 inmate death lawsuits, same medical provider
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- The mother of a Clackamas County Jail inmate who
died in custody is suing the county and the contracted jail medical provider
-- the same medical provider being sued in the death of a Washington County
inmate. Tennessee-based Corizon Health provides
medical care for inmates at 26 jails in 13 states. They've been sued multiple
times across the country over the death of inmates. The lawsuit filed by the
mother of Bryan Perry against Clackamas County and Corizon
Health said they did not do more to help her son. In November 2016, deputies took cell phone
video and joked as Perry moved uncontrollably in his padded cell, likely from
a drug overdose. The lawsuit claims 2 nurses only checked on Perry twice that
night for a total of 5 minutes. He eventually went into cardiac arrest and
died at the hospital. He was 31. The lawsuit claims Corizon
Health "has a nationwide pattern and practice of failing to properly
treat jail inmates experiencing drug or alcohol overdose or withdrawal."
The death of Madaline Pitkin. About a year ago,
KOIN 6 News reported about the disturbing death of Madaline
Pitkin while she was an inmate in Washington County. Madaline Pitkin
died in April 2014 while being held at the Washington County Jail. Her
parents filed a lawsuit against the county on November 30, 2016 (Courtesy
photo). Her family is also suing Corizon Health.
According to the lawsuit, in 2014 Pitkin made multiple requests for help
involving heroin withdrawal. She died in her jail cell. Corizon
Health failed to provide timely and complete medical care, her family said.
"I just can't imagine people that are so heartless," Mary Pitkin
told KOIN 6 News at that time. "They maybe don't view prisoners as
people. I don't know." Washington County changed medical providers in
2015. The Clackamas County Jail is currently the only jail in Oregon where Corizon Health operates. The deputies involved in the
cell phone video of Bryan Perry are employed by the Clackamas County
Sheriff's Office, not Corizon Health. Sheriff Craig
Roberts said he took disciplinary action against those employees who still
worked there. In a statement to KOIN 6 News, Corizon
Health officials said: Corizon Health is first and
foremost a healthcare company with doctors and nurses dedicated to working in
a challenging setting to provide care that follows medical guidelines and
meets national standards of care. Due to patient privacy and active
litigation, we are unable to comment on this individual case, but we believe
it is important to note that Corizon employees were
not involved in videotaping Mr. Perry and the comments on the tape are not
those of any Corizon Health employee.
Deschutes County Jail
Dec 3, 2017
.bendbulletin.com
Jail employee accused of having sex with inmate
A kitchen employee with Deschutes County Jail is accused of having sex
with an inmate and sneaking tobacco into the jail. April Ann Hoisington-Kite,
44, of Bend, was charged Friday with two counts of custodial sexual
misconduct and supplying contraband. Hoisington-Kite allegedly had sex with
inmate, Stephen Rechner, on at least two occasions
at the jail between Oct. 1 and Nov. 1, according to charging documents. In
that time, she reportedly brought tobacco into the jail. Sgt. William Bailey,
spokesman for the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, said Hoisington-Kite was
a contract employee through Aramark, a company that provides food service and
uniform services to businesses and public facilities. Hoisington-Kite was
cited and released Nov. 1, and has not been allowed back in the jail. She met
Rechner in the kitchen area, Bailey said. “She
worked as a contract employee, and he was an inmate worker, and they
developed their relationship through that,” Bailey said. Rechner
is in jail on a parole violation, and was convicted of methamphetamine
possession in late August. Records show Rechner was
convicted of third-degree rape, second-degree sex abuse and endangering the
welfare of a minor in September 2014. His criminal history includes
convictions of identity theft, third-degree theft and strangulation.
Hoisington-Kite is scheduled for an arraignment hearing Wednesday in
Deschutes County Circuit Court.
Gresham Burger King
Gresham, Oregon
CCA
October 22, 2006 News Herald
The 19-year-old woman stripped naked in front of her boss in the manager’s
room at the Winn-Dixie on 23rd Street more than three years ago because a
voice on the phone said so. The teenager posed. She exposed. She did jumping
jacks nude. For nearly two hours, a man who said he was a police officer
orchestrated her humiliation over the phone. The voice told the girl’s boss,
assistant manager James Marvin Pate, that she stole a purse. Police believe
the man on the phone was David R. Stewart, of Fountain, said Sgt. Kevin
Miller, of the Panama City Police Department. Authorities said Stewart, 39,
made dozens of calls like this across the country for several years. The
phone hoaxes sparked lawsuits against restaurant franchisees and chains like
McDonald’s, Burger King and Applebee’s. Stewart’s first trial is scheduled to
begin Tuesday in Mount Washington, Ky. In the Kentucky case, Stewart is
accused of calling a McDonald’s on April 9, 2004, and posing as a police
officer. Police said he told McDonald’s assistant manager Donna Summers a
story similar to what the voice told the manager at the Panama City
Winn-Dixie: He said a teenage female employee, Louise Ogborn,
had stolen a purse and that she needed to be strip-searched. Summers and her
ex-boyfriend, Walter Nix Jr., strip-searched Ogborn
for about four hours, police said. Nix also had Ogborn
perform sexual acts on him — all at the request of the caller. Mount
Washington authorities charged Stewart with three counts of solicitation to
commit sexual abuse, first degree; solicitation to commit sodomy, first
degree; impersonating a police officer; and solicitation unlawful
imprisonment, second degree. Incidents since the ’90s: Authorities said
Stewart has peppered the country with calls dating back to the mid-1990s, mostly
to chain restaurants. Usually, the man calls, identifies himself as a police
officer, and says a female employee has drugs or has stolen something and
must be strip-searched. In Panama City, the nightmare for a 19-year-old
cashier began on July 12, 2003, at Winn-Dixie, when a fellow employee told
her to report to the manager’s office, according to a PCPD incident report.
According to the police report, which blacked out the name of the victim,
what happened next lasted nearly two hours: Assistant manager Pate, 39, was
waiting and handed her the phone. On the line was a man who said he was
Officer Tim Peterson with the Panama City Police Department. The voice said
she stole a purse and gave her two choices: Either strip naked in front of
Pate or be brought down to the jail, where she’d be strip-searched in front
of a lot more people. The voice also said Pate had the authority to keep her
there and strip-search her, while the voice verified everything over the
phone. The cashier agreed. Pate told her what to take off, and she complied
out of fear of being taken to jail. She placed each item of clothing in a
plastic bag. Pate described the cashier’s naked body in intimate detail to
the voice on the phone, according to the police report. The voice commanded the
cashier to pose in various positions that exposed her breasts, anal and
vaginal areas to Pate. Toward the end of the woman’s ordeal, grocery manager
Thomas Moton, 49, entered the office looking for a a key to unload a truck at the store’s rear dock. When he
entered, the cashier was doing jumping jacks, and Pate had the receiver to
his ear. “Pate said the boss is on the phone,” Moton
said. “I thought the store manager was on the phone.” Moton
said he thought something wasn’t right. He wanted to get the other assistant
manager, but Pate said the voice on the phone told him to stay. The cashier
went through several poses, Moton said. “She was
bending over, sitting in a chair and doing jumping jacks,” he said. When the
woman finally was allowed to leave, she put her clothes on and rushed out the
door. Moton mentioned to Pate that “if this ain’t
what it’s supposed to be, then you are out of here.” A short time later,
police tore into the parking lot and hauled off Pate in handcuffs. Police
charged Pate with lewd and lascivious behavior and false imprisonment. The
charges eventually were dropped, Miller said. Moton
said he never saw the cashier again after that night. “I didn’t even want to
look her in face,” he said. “It was so embarrassing.” Police track the caller:
The caller contacted several Wendy’s restaurants on Feb. 20, 2004, in the
West Bridgewater, Mass., area, said Detective Sgt. Victor Flaherty of the
West Bridgewater Police Department. West Bridge water is a suburb of Boston.
“We had four incidents in one night,” Flaherty said. “Some conversations
lasted more than an hour and a half.” Like the others, calls involved
strip-searches of female employees, Flaherty said. By this time, however, the
trail was leading back to Stewart, authorities said. After a story appeared
in a restaurant industry magazine about what happened in West Bridgewater,
Flaherty was flooded with calls from police agencies across the country.
Detective Buddy Stump of the Mount Washington Police Department called
Flaherty. Stump was looking for help tracing the call to the McDonald’s where
Ogborn was strip-searched. Flaherty traced the
calls made to West Bridgewater back to the Panama City area. He called the
Panama City Police Department and asked for help, Miller said. Andrea McKenzie,
a former detective with the PCPD and now an investigator with the state
attorney’s office, helped link Stewart to the calls. McKenzie said she
fielded calls from police agencies all over the country. “It was kind of
shocking,” she said. “People said the phone number was coming from the Panama
City area.” When the investigation uncovered that some of the calls were made
using a phone card, authorities got the break they needed. “Nothing in this
world is untraceable, if you put the time into it,” Flaherty said. McKenzie
tracked the date and time of when the phone cards were bought to the Wal-Mart
on 23rd Street. She pulled security video. On the video was a man wearing a
uniform from the local jail run by Corrections Corporation of America,
McKenzie said. Stewart was identified as the jail guard shown on the video,
authorities said, and police brought him to the PCPD to be interrogated by
Flaherty, who flew in from Massachusetts. When police arrested Stewart, they
found numerous police magazines and applications to police departments,
Miller said. “This guy wanted to be a cop in the worst way,” Flaherty said.
Stewart’s attorney, Steve Romines, said there is no
way his client could have been the voice on the phone. “To talk someone into
this — it is someone more eloquent than David (Stewart),” Romines
said. “He’s not dumb, but this was very sophisticated.” Flaherty disagreed
with Romines’ assessment. “I’ve been doing this for
20 years, and there is no doubt in my mind” that Stewart did it, Flaherty
said. Authorities eventually extradited Stewart in the fall 2004 from Bay
County to Mount Washington to stand trial. Panama City police didn’t go after
Stewart because they couldn’t link him to the call to the Winn-Dixie, Miller
said. Other states, meanwhile, are awaiting the outcome of the Kentucky trial
before pursuing legal action against Stewart, Flaherty said. “Oregon is still
interested in him,” Flaherty said. “In Massachusetts, I consider it a rape by
him.”
February 4, 2006 Oregonian
A former fast-food worker is suing the owners of a Gresham Burger King
franchise because she claims her supervisor ordered her to undress after
accusing her of theft two years ago. The supervisor told police he was
following the instructions of a caller who claimed he was a police officer
investigating theft. In fact, the caller is suspected of pulling a similar
scam on dozens of workers at restaurants and other stores across the country
for a decade. Last year, police arrested David R. Stewart, a former private
corrections officer from Florida. Stewart faces charges in Kentucky, although
he is suspected of making calls around the country, according to an article
in the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky. Officer Grant McCormick, spokesman
for the Gresham Police Department, said there was no active investigation
since the arrest. The lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in Multnomah County
Circuit Court, describes a typical version of the scam: The plaintiff, who
was a minor, finished her shift at the Burger King at 990 N.W. Eastman Parkway
about 8:45 p.m. in February 2004. She was with her mother in the parking lot
when the manager approached and told her to return to the restaurant. The
manager told the girl's mother to wait outside. Then he brought the plaintiff
into his office where he accused her of stealing $50 from a customer and said
a police officer was on the phone and needed to speak with her. The plaintiff
"spoke with the caller . . . and then was instructed to hand the phone
back to (the manager, who) then instructed (the plaintiff) to begin disrobing
and gave her a bag in which to place her clothing. The caller instructed (the
plaintiff) to remove all her clothing, including her bra and panties, and she
complied while (the manager) stood by. After she was completely undressed and
all her clothes were in the bag, (the manager) again spoke with the caller
and described how (the plaintiff) was sitting and further advised the caller
that her legs were closed. The caller instructed (the plaintiff) to open her
legs so that (the manager) could see between them, but (the plaintiff)
refused to do this," according to the suit. After 45 minutes, the
plaintiff's mother came in and told her daughter to get dressed and leave.
Oregon Department of Corrections
Jan
15, 2020 heraldandnews.com
State
seeks corrective actions from private detention centers
SALEM
– On behalf of the state of Oregon and the Oregon Public Employees Retirement
Fund (OPERF), State Treasurer Tobias Read and Attorney General Ellen
Rosenblum called for immediate action from the boards of directors of two
companies that operate detention centers under contracts with the federal
government, according to a news release. In shareholder demand letters to the
board chairs of CoreCivic and GEO Group, Treasurer
Read and Attorney General Rosenblum cited concerns about health and safety
along with specific instances in which the boards of directors have neglected
their fiduciary duties, leading to actions that threaten both short- and
long-term profitability for shareholders such as the Oregon Public Employees
Retirement Fund. The letters go on to call for specific changes to be
implemented to remedy operations that pose risks to shareholders. “As
shareholders, it’s incumbent upon us to speak up when company boards are not
meeting their fiduciary responsibilities,” said Read. “Especially when we see
such egregious failure in board oversight, we must use our voice and platform
to push boards to make positive changes that improve business practices while
reducing investment risks.” The Oregon State Treasury manages OPERF on behalf
of nearly 375,000 current and former public employees and their
beneficiaries. The $81 billion fund includes more than 47,500 shares of CoreCivic and more than 48,000 shares of GEO Group. The
Oregon Investment Council formulates policies for the investment of OPERF,
and the State Treasurer is the investment officer for the Oregon Investment
Council. As a large, institutional investor, the State of Oregon may
influence positive changes in corporate governance and decision-making that
lead to strengthening returns for plan participants, retirees, and
beneficiaries. “We have significant legal concerns about the mistreatment of
individuals detained in facilities run by GEO Group and CoreCivic—in
particular the denial of detainees’ basic needs and the unsafe conditions in
which they are being forced to live,” said Rosenblum. “I look forward to
prompt and meaningful engagement with the boards of both companies to address
both the business impacts and the dangers to detainees.” After documenting
violations of health and safety standards and serious concerns about labor
practices, both letters enumerate corrective actions the boards of directors
must take to remedy the breaches of fiduciary duty. These actions include
ensuring compliance with contractual and legal obligations; ending inhumane
solitary confinement practices; and improving transparency. Further, the
letter to the GEO Group board includes a demand for books or records to
assist in refining the state’s requests for corrective actions.
Jan
15, 2020 heraldandnews.com
State
seeks corrective actions from private detention centers
SALEM
– On behalf of the state of Oregon and the Oregon Public Employees Retirement
Fund (OPERF), State Treasurer Tobias Read and Attorney General Ellen
Rosenblum called for immediate action from the boards of directors of two
companies that operate detention centers under contracts with the federal
government, according to a news release. In shareholder demand letters to the
board chairs of CoreCivic and GEO Group, Treasurer
Read and Attorney General Rosenblum cited concerns about health and safety
along with specific instances in which the boards of directors have neglected
their fiduciary duties, leading to actions that threaten both short- and
long-term profitability for shareholders such as the Oregon Public Employees
Retirement Fund. The letters go on to call for specific changes to be
implemented to remedy operations that pose risks to shareholders. “As
shareholders, it’s incumbent upon us to speak up when company boards are not
meeting their fiduciary responsibilities,” said Read. “Especially when we see
such egregious failure in board oversight, we must use our voice and platform
to push boards to make positive changes that improve business practices while
reducing investment risks.” The Oregon State Treasury manages OPERF on behalf
of nearly 375,000 current and former public employees and their
beneficiaries. The $81 billion fund includes more than 47,500 shares of CoreCivic and more than 48,000 shares of GEO Group. The
Oregon Investment Council formulates policies for the investment of OPERF,
and the State Treasurer is the investment officer for the Oregon Investment
Council. As a large, institutional investor, the State of Oregon may
influence positive changes in corporate governance and decision-making that
lead to strengthening returns for plan participants, retirees, and
beneficiaries. “We have significant legal concerns about the mistreatment of
individuals detained in facilities run by GEO Group and CoreCivic—in
particular the denial of detainees’ basic needs and the unsafe conditions in
which they are being forced to live,” said Rosenblum. “I look forward to
prompt and meaningful engagement with the boards of both companies to address
both the business impacts and the dangers to detainees.” After documenting
violations of health and safety standards and serious concerns about labor
practices, both letters enumerate corrective actions the boards of directors
must take to remedy the breaches of fiduciary duty. These actions include
ensuring compliance with contractual and legal obligations; ending inhumane
solitary confinement practices; and improving transparency. Further, the
letter to the GEO Group board includes a demand for books or records to
assist in refining the state’s requests for corrective actions.
Jul
9, 2016 bendbulletin.com
Suit alleges inmate was denied treatment
EUGENE — A Fall Creek man is suing Lane County and others, saying he was
wrongly denied needed psychiatric care at the Lane County Jail following his
2014 arrest. Angelo Fricano is seeking $3 million against the county and Corizon Health, which provided health care to inmates
until last year. The nonprofit Civil Liberties Defense Center filed the
complaint last week in federal court in Eugene. Representatives for Corizon and the county declined to comment.
Oct
28, 2013 registerguard.com
The
guardian for a former Lane County Jail inmate who sustained a catastrophic
spinal injury while in custody is suing the county and a private health care
contractor for $30 million. Kelly Conrad Green II is now a quadriplegic as a
result of the neck injury, according to a suit filed in U.S. District Court
in Eugene. He accuses the county and Corizon Health
Inc. of negligence and violation of his constitutional rights. Green, who
evidently was mentally ill at the time, broke his neck after lowering his
head and running into a concrete wall at the jail, the suit says. It accuses Corizon and the county of ignoring his neck injury and
leaving him naked, paralyzed and incontinent in a jail cell for six hours
before calling an ambulance. Corizon took over the
job of providing health care for inmates at the jail last year. The Lane
County Sheriff’s Office, which used to handle inmate health care with its own
medical employees, switched to a private contractor as a money-saving move,
saying it could save the cash-strapped county as much as $650,000 a year. A
Lane County spokeswoman said the county has a policy of not commenting on
pending litigation. A spokesman for Corizon did not
immediately return a call seeking comment. The suit claims the treatment of
Green by the county and Corizon violated Green’s
rights under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which provides for equal
protection under the law for all citizens and the right to due process in
matters that could result in the loss of life or property. It also claims the
county and Corizon were negligent in caring for
Green and that Corizon is guilty of gross
negligence and reckless misconduct. Other defendants named in the suit
include the national medical director, chief mental health officer and
national nursing officer for Corizon, five local Corizon employees and three Lane County sheriff’s
deputies working at the jail. It also names 10 unidentified jail health care
workers. According to the suit, Green was booked into the jail on Feb. 11
after being arrested on a warrant. The suit doesn’t identify the charge, but
court records show the only pending case involving Green at that time was a
citation for possession of less than one ounce of marijuana, and that Green
had failed to show up for an arraignment on the charge in January. From the
time he was booked, Green showed signs of having mental health problems, the
suit says. He appeared to be experiencing paranoid schizophrenia, was talking
to himself and inanimate objects and, according to jail records cited in the
lawsuit, “barely made it through the booking process.” While being arraigned
at the jail, Green began to talk to himself, the suit says. As described in
the lawsuit, he then ran toward a concrete-block wall 8 to 10 feet away,
lowered his head and hit the wall, collapsing and bleeding heavily from his
head. Corizon workers were called, and Green
reportedly told them he was paralyzed. But the suit claims they made no
effort to stabilize his neck or spine and instead loaded him on a wheelchair
and took him out of the jail courtroom with his feet dragging behind the
chair. A physician’s assistant sutured the head wound but did not do a
neurological exam, did not arrange for an exam by a physician and took no
neck or spine precautions, the lawsuit alleges. It said Green, who had lost
control of his bowels, was returned to his cell, stripped of his clothes and
put on the bed. Over the next six hours, Green allegedly told several jail workers
that he was paralyzed and unable to move and needed help. When he was
interviewed by a Corizon mental health specialist
several hours later, the suit claims the specialist said he didn’t believe
Green was seriously injured. At one point, the lawsuit claims, a Corizon employee told a deputy who reported that Green
was not moving that as long as he was breathing there was “no immediate
concern.” After about six hours, a jail worker called an ambulance and Green
was taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend
in Springfield. He was diagnosed with a neck fracture and spinal cord injury
and underwent three hours of surgery that evening. The suit alleges a long
list of failures and shortcomings in Green’s treatment. It claims Corizon staff failed to provide prompt or adequate
treatment, and aggravated Green’s injury by carelessly dragging and moving
his body after the injury and leaving him naked and paralyzed in a cell for
six hours. The defendants also are accused of failing to screen mentally ill
inmates, providing inadequate medical treatment and failing to meet accepted
standards for medical care. The suit accuses Corizon
of gross negligence and reckless misconduct for refusing to attend to Green
and for saying he didn’t need medical attention as long as he was breathing. Corizon provides medical services at more than 400
facilities in 31 states and handles health care at two other county jails in
Oregon, in Clackamas and Washington counties. Its corporate headquarters is
in Brentwood, Tenn., and it has a regional office in Hillsboro.
May 12, 2011 The Oregonian
The Oregon Government Ethics Commission is investigating whether a former
state prison executive violated the state's "revolving door"
prohibition by going to work for a company that won a multimillion-dollar
contract he helped advance. Michael Taaffe, 56, started work in March for
Correctional Health Partners, three days before he went off the clock as
assistant business services administrator for the state Corrections
Department's Health Services Division. Taaffe was on a three-member panel
that in March 2009 selected Correctional Health Partners over five other
bidders to manage some medical care for the state's 14,000 inmates. The
company was paid $1.2 million its first year and continues to get monthly
payments of about $100,000. The disclosure is raising eyebrows as state
officials prepare to audit contracts awarded to former state employees. The
wider audit was triggered by the discovery, reported last week in The
Oregonian, that a former Department of Administrative Services employee
returned as a contractor, earning more than $400,000. The Ethics Commission
opened a preliminary inquiry of Taaffe last month after receiving a complaint
from a state Corrections Department employee. Unlike the issues in the
pending state audit, Taaffe holds no personal contract with the Corrections
Department. Instead, he runs the Oregon prison operation of Correctional
Health Partners. Taaffe had no comment Thursday, but his employer did.
"We have no concerns about his actions and feel he is a very ethical
employee," said Jeff Archambeau of Correctional Health Partners. Asked
if Taaffe took any actions for the company as a state employee in exchange
for the job, Archambeau responded, "Absolutely and unequivocally
not."
March 18, 2007 The Oregonian
Federal court statistics show that plaintiffs filed nearly 4,200 cases
under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which governs pay practices, in
fiscal 2006, which ended Sept. 30. That's up from 4,040 cases in fiscal 2005
and 2,751 in 2003. In Portland this month, Richard Bird filed a class-action
lawsuit against his ex-employer, Aramark Correctional Services Inc. He
alleges the nationwide prison-service provider broke Oregon laws by failing
to properly pay him and co-workers when they worked overtime, took rest
periods and put in for their final paychecks. An Aramark spokeswoman said
Friday that the company does not comment on pending litigation. Those claims
surfaced in a state court -- Multnomah County Circuit Court, specifically.
And although Oregon doesn't track civil cases by cause, attorneys say
wage-and-hour claims are numerous in state venues. Why the flood of cases?
It's easy for employers to make a mistake and relatively easy for employees
to make them pay for it, said Nancy Cooper, an attorney with Bullivant Houser Bailey in Portland. Wage-and-hour rules
are complicated and vary across state lines, making national firms such as
Philadelphia-based Aramark vulnerable. Oregon, for instance, requires
employers to provide paid 10-minute breaks, Cooper said. Arizona does not.
February 27, 2007 The Oregonian
Oregon corrections officials on Monday fired Fred Monem,
the state prison food manager who federal investigators claim took nearly
$700,000 in bribes from food vendors. Monem, 48,
has been on paid leave since Jan. 10, the day squads of IRS and FBI agents
searched his Salem home and state office in what has the potential to become
the biggest bribery case in Oregon history. Neither Monem
nor his wife, Karen, who was also implicated, have been charged. Max
Williams, state Corrections Department director, confirmed Monem's termination but wouldn't discuss the basis.
"You'll have to draw your own conclusions," Williams told The
Oregonian. The agency didn't announce the action, but a termination letter
obtained by The Oregonian said Monem had engaged in
"misconduct, insubordination, indolence and malfeasance."
"Your actions are egregious because you were in the role to have a
relationship with the vendors while being entrusted to maintain
business-related ethical standards," John Koreski,
a Corrections Department assistant director, said in the letter. David Angeli, Monem's attorney, had
no comment. Monem joined the state department in
1996 and was praised by supervisors in annual reviews for his management of
food purchases. The performance reviews credited Monem
with saving the state up to $10 million a biennium by shopping the
"spot" market for discounted goods for the state's 13,300 inmates.
In the spot market, Monem found deeply-discounted
foods being liquidated by name-brand producers at a fraction of the normal
wholesale price. Monem put Oregon in the forefront
of the practice among state prison systems; most states avoid buying in the
spot market, according to a survey by The Oregonian. Federal affidavits
unsealed last month in Eugene and Los Angeles cited witnesses and bank
records to assert that Monem had been taking bribes
from vendors since 2003. The vendors initially paid Monem
in cash and often met him in Las Vegas, according to the affidavits. The
allegations are based in part on statements from two former employees of a
California company, identified in the affidavits as a source of $475,000 in
bribes. According to the affidavits, Monem started
accepting checks in 2004 because the California vendor was tiring of rounding
up cash for the payoffs. With coaching from the vendors, Monem's
wife, Karen, established a corporation to take in the payments, according to
the affidavits. The vendors continued paying the Monems'
expenses for regular trips to Las Vegas. Agents searching the Monems' home in South Salem reported finding $75,000 --
nearly all of it in $100 bills -- in a safe in the garage. They found another
$455,000 in cash in the couple's safety deposit box. The vendors suspected of
paying the bribes are Levin and Lawrence Inc., which operates as Michael
Levin Trading in California, and MRB LLC of Maryland. Principals of both
firms are accused in the affidavit of handling the kickbacks. The companies
and their owners have repeatedly declined comment on the investigation.
February 4, 2007 The Oregonian
Fred Monem, the prison food executive suspected
of taking bribes, had virtually unchecked power over how the state spends
millions each year to feed state inmates, according to documents obtained by
The Oregonian and interviews with state officials. The picture of Monem's role is far different from the portrayal made by
Corrections Department officials as the kickback scandal emerged two weeks
ago. Initially, officials said he had little freedom to operate on his own.
Agency officials now concede that Monem was able to
decide on his own what food to buy and when. And although standard procedures
required someone other than Monem to get price
comparisons before his deals went through, for years he did so himself,
evading a key safeguard against fraud. Monem, 48,
and his wife, Karen, 43, are accused in federal court papers of accepting
$681,000 in kickbacks from three food companies. Monem
has been placed on paid leave, as has his brother-in-law, William Morgan Jr.,
who worked under him in the buying program. Neither the Monems
nor Morgan has been charged with a crime. As investigators from the FBI and
the IRS continue to pursue leads in the case, state documents and interviews
help piece together a clearer picture of the loose oversight under which Monem steered state business to food brokers in
California, Maryland and New York who allegedly paid kickbacks. Corrections
Department officials have praised Monem in public
and through job reviews for his work as their food services administrator,
saying he produced millions of dollars in savings for taxpayers. But
according to a federal affidavit, the vendors secretly paid Monem to buy "distressed" and hard-to-sell
products on the cheap. The Monems and Morgan have
declined comment. The Monems' Portland lawyer,
David H. Angeli, has said his clients deserve to be
presumed innocent. His job: Keep costs down: Monem's
job was to clamp down on costs for feeding 13,300 inmates in the state
system. In part, he did so by taking Oregon into the "spot" food
market, where manufacturers fix bad bets at guessing the public appetite by
selling deeply discounted products that aren't moving in grocery stores or
major restaurant chains. Operating in the fast-moving spot market, where
bargains can appear and disappear in a flash, required flexibility. Rules
allowed Monem to buy goods using purchase orders
instead of formal contracts. Goods from the three vendors suspected in the
kickback scheme represented a significant share of the spot buys ordered by Monem, corrections officials said. Concentrations of
business with a just few suppliers can be legitimate, purchasing and audit
experts told The Oregonian, but they may also signal illegal buying patterns.
The agency recently examined spot buys over five years, identifying just 15
vendors used by the agency. Officials wouldn't release the document and
couldn't say when it had ever done such an analysis before. Don Charlton, Monem's supervisor, said the concentration didn't alarm
him and raised no red flags with other corrections officials. Prison meals
are planned three months at a time, and Monem
organized his food buys by consulting with dietitians, food service managers
and warehouse managers to determine grocery needs, officials said. But when
it came to ordering, Monem alone made the decisions
and could spend up to $200,000 on a single order. "He doesn't have to
get anyone's approval," said John Koreski,
Corrections Department assistant director. At the same time, Monem was expected to discuss significant or unusual buys
with his supervisors, Charlton said. Prowling the market: Agency officials
said Monem prowled the spot market by phone, fax
and e-mail. Once he found a product at a good price, other employees were
supposed to verify the quote and seek at least two competing bids, they said.
"The quotes are obtained by a purchasing agent, not by the food services
administrator (Monem), to provide proper separation
and controls," the agency said in a written statement after the kickback
allegations surfaced. In an interview Friday, however, Koreski
and Charlton said it hasn't always worked that way. They said Monem wasn't turning over the comparison work to
purchasing agents working in another unit. Instead, Monem
"would go out to the marketplace and look for competing bids to compare
against the price he had just gotten," Koreski
said. Charlton said that when he took over his current job in early 2006, he
realized that better controls were needed in Monem's
operation. In April 2006, he promoted Monem's aide
-- Morgan -- to state purchaser, tasked with getting comparable quotes.
"(Morgan) was independent," Charlton said. But Charlton didn't know
at the time that Morgan was Monem's brother-
in-law. Federal agents first alerted corrections officials to the
relationship during a Jan. 10 search of Monem's
office. Morgan told prison officials last week that he had done outside
consulting with Monem, advising a vendor who he
said didn't do business with the Corrections Department. Morgan told
officials he received a single payment from Jamm
Inc. According to the federal affidavit, that was the company set up by Karen
Monem, who is Morgan's sister. The affidavit said Jamm Inc. was used as a conduit for at least $475,000 in
kickbacks from the vendors. Morgan, 41, was placed on leave last week after
The Oregonian asked questions about his relationship to Monem
and officials found that he hadn't disclosed the tie when he was hired seven
years ago. Before Morgan's promotion, Monem would
pass on his price quotes to a purchasing agent, who would
"sometimes" double-check the quotes or contact a vendor to get
another quote, Koreski said. He couldn't say how
often that happened. The agency last week mandated that all quotes from
vendors be obtained in writing. "It's another measure of
protection," Koreski said. Internal review on
hold: Corrections officials say they won't do an internal review of
procedures in the prison food buying program until the criminal investigation
is done. Records that would show what Monem bought,
whether he obtained comparison quotes, and who signed off on the paperwork
have been turned over to federal investigators, they said. In 2003, the
Corrections Department hired an internal auditor, but Monem's
operation hasn't been audited. Two years ago, the state Audits Division
examined Corrections Department contracting but found no gaps. Auditors
didn't examine the spot buy program because contracts weren't involved.
Auditors did randomly sample one Monem purchase --
but stopped when they determined it didn't fit the purpose of their audit.
Government auditors and procurement experts say detecting kickbacks to
government workers is difficult. The flow of under-the-table bribes to the
employee doesn't show up in government records. Charles Hibner,
director of the state Audits Division, said the best chance of catching a
kickback situation is for supervisors to be alert to red flags, such as a
flashy lifestyle that doesn't match a public paycheck. Records show that Monem, who earned $75,000 a year, bought a $77,000 BMW
for his wife and invested in property on the Oregon Coast with executives
from one of the food companies. Federal investigators say he also took dozens
of trips to Las Vegas to collect cash from his vendors. None of that appears
to have caught the eyes of his supervisors.
January 23, 2007 The Oregonian
Federal agents found more than $450,000 in cash in the home and safety
deposit box of an Oregon prison official accused of taking bribes from
companies that sell food for inmates' meals and snacks. Farhad
"Fred" Monem, who earns $75,500 a year as
the food service administrator for the Oregon Department of Corrections, was
placed on leave after IRS and FBI agents searched his home and office Jan.
10. A federal judge Friday unsealed court documents that describe a four-year
kickback scheme and detail what agents discovered during their searches. Monem's lawyer declined to comment Monday. No charges
have been filed against Monem or others allegedly
involved. Federal prosecutors declined to discuss a timeline for arrests in
the bribery scheme, which they allege included Monem's
wife, Karen, and officials from food distributors and brokers in California,
New York and Maryland. Monem, 48, was considered a
whiz kid at the prison system, credited with saving the state millions of
dollars because of his shrewd working of the commodities market. Prison
officials praised Monem for reducing the daily cost
of prison food from $2.88 to $2.30, third lowest in the nation. One food
broker praised Monem's business savvy in a March
2002 profile in The Oregonian. "He'll let you earn a living, but you're
not going to get rich off him," said Doug Levene
of 21st Century Supply. Levene, who could not be
reached for comment Monday, is one of several food industry officials accused
in federal court records of taking part in a bribery scheme that included
splashy Las Vegas casino meetings, a junket to a football game in Chicago
between the Bears and the Green Bay Packers and the creation of a shell
company allegedly controlled by Karen Monem. Court
records single out Levin & Lawrence, Inc., a wholesale food distributor
based in Santa Clarita, Calif. The company buys bulk food, some of it labeled
"distressed" because it was close to the expiration date, marks it
up and resells it for a profit. In his position, Monem
bought bulk food for inmate meals and the prison commissary. His job was to
get the cheapest price possible. But by early 2003, according to court
records, Monem was agreeing to buy large quantities
of bulk food from Levin & Lawrence in exchange for 20 percent of the
company's net profits on sales to the Oregon prison system, according to an
affidavit filed by IRS Special Agent Robert Salisbury. A
unnamed informant told federal investigators that if they ever had product
that was difficult to sell, "they would make Fred buy it,"
according to the affidavit. Michael Levin, a company official accused of
participating in the bribery scheme, declined to comment Monday. The
affidavit said Monem met repeatedly with company
officials in Las Vegas where at least initially he received cash payments. In
one meeting last year, Salisbury said he observed Monem
and Levin & Lawrence officials arrive at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
by limo and check in at the VIP services desk. Over time, Levin &
Lawrence officials urged Monem to create a shell
company. Monem set up Jamm
Inc., which was controlled by his wife, according to the affidavit. Karen Monem would send invoices to Levin & Lawrence for
consulting work. Court records allege the Monems
received more than $475,000 in bribes from Levin & Lawrence and an
additional $200,000 from other food companies. Court records indicate that
the Monems invested some of the money, teaming up with
Levin & Lawrence officials to buy a rental property in Seal Rock. But
records also note that Fred Monem bought a $77,000
BMW. Salisbury said in his affidavit that he saw Monem
drive the car to his office earlier this month. During the search of the Monems' Salem home, agents found a diamond ring worth
nearly $9,500. They say they also found baggies of marijuana and hashish.
Gov. Ted Kulongoski's spokeswoman, Anna Richter Taylor, directed questions to
the Oregon Department of Corrections. "We don't comment on pending
investigations," she said. Corrections officials expressed dismay.
"We are, of course, disappointed that allegations have surfaced
regarding a department employee. We hold ourselves -- and all employees -- to
the highest ethical standards, and we take very seriously any suggestion that
those standards have been violated," Max Williams, director of the
Corrections Department, said in a statement. "The Department of
Corrections will fully cooperate in every way to ensure that justice is
served." Court records say potential criminal charges include mail
fraud, wire fraud, bribery, conspiracy, money laundering and filing a false
federal income tax return. Court records indicate that two former Levin &
Lawrence employees, who left the company to start their own competing food
business last spring, told federal officials about the bribery scheme. One of
the unnamed informants said a company official threatened him if he talked.
In the 2002 profile in The Oregonian, Monem boasted
of his ability to buy goods at the lowest prices. While leading a tour
through the prison system's food warehouse, he noted that he purchased a
large block of Mrs. Fields oatmeal raisin-and-nut cookies -- normally $1.98
-- for 36 cents a pack. He also criticized government workers who feel a
sense of entitlement. "People work for so many years and feel the
taxpayer owes them," he said. "But to me, nobody deserves
anything."
Salem Hospital
Salem, Oregon
Aramark
June 9, 2011 AP
Salem Hospital is unhappy with the work of a private contractor, so it
will use the commercial laundry at the Oregon State Penitentiary to clean its
microfiber mop heads. Spokeswoman Julie Howard told the Statesman Journal
that mop heads were coming back smelly and crusty from Aramark Uniform
Services and couldn't be used. She says the hospital already contracts with
the prison laundry for bed linens and staff scrubs and is happy with the
inmate labor. A spokeswoman for Aramark in Philadelphia says it stands behind
the quality of it service.
Washington County Jail
Washington County, Oregon
Corizon (formerly Prison Health Services)
Dec 8, 2018 katu.com
Judge approves $10 million
judgement in Washington County jail death lawsuit
HILLSBORO, Ore. – A federal
judge approved a $10 million judgment against Corizon
Health and Washington County in a lawsuit over a woman who died while
suffering from heroin withdrawal symptoms in the Washington County Jail in
2014. Madaline Pitkin, 26 at the time, was arrested
on April 16, 2014 for possession of heroin. She died on April 24, 2014 after
saying she was feeling the effects of withdrawal and showed symptoms for
days. Lawyers for Pitkin's family say the jail's health provider, Corizon Health, failed to get Pitkin the help she needed.
They say the county knew about concerns at the jail. "She was smart,
beautiful, talented, funny, and a person who stood up for friends, so we felt
we needed to stand up for her," said Russ Pitkin, Madaline's
father. Pitkin spent seven days in jail. Family lawyers say she reported to
jail staff that she had used heroin. In the days before her death, the
lawsuit says Madaline Pitkin submitted four Health
Care Request forms asking for medical care. She described nausea, vomiting,
and diarrhea. She reported being unable to hold down food or water. In her
last request for medical care, Pitkin wrote, "This is the 3rd or 4th
call for help. I haven't been able to keep food, liquids, meds down in 6 days
... I feel like I am very close to death. Can't hear, seeing lights, hearing
voices. Please help me. ..." She was transferred to the Medical
Observation Unit on April 23, 2014. That same day, the medical director and
only physician on staff at the Washington County Jail at the time, Joseph
McCarthy, was fired for falsifying records and failing to treat patients.
Madeline was found dead in her cell the next day. Family lawyers say deputies
found a handwritten copy of the Lord's prayer and the serenity prayer.
"The last conversation Madaline had with
anyone was with a deputy, whom she told that when she got out of this jail,
she's going to do everything she needs to do to beat this terrible
addiction," said John Coletti, a lawyer for
the family. The Washington County Medical Examiner determined she died of
“complications from chronic intravenous drug abuse.” Family lawyers say
Pitkin should have been taken to a hospital. Coletti
says all Pitkin needed was an IV. "She died of dehydration, associated
with withdrawal from heroin," said Coletti.
"Something that typically never happens unless you don't get the medical
care you deserve or should have had, and it's the policies or practices that
they had in place that came together to cause this horrific event."
According to the lawsuit, whistleblowers brought up concerns at the jail long
before Pitkin's death. It read, "In the months prior to the death of Madaline Pitkin, Corizon’s
Physician’s Assistant at the Washington County jail notified policymakers at
Washington County that Corizon was placing profit
over patient safety. She also conveyed to the policymakers Washington County
and senior management at Corizon that the
Washington County jail was understaffed, its medical staff insufficiently
trained, thereby placing the patient population at substantial risk of
harm." In 2013, the Washington County Auditor, John Hutzler,
warned the county of problems with understaffing at the jail. Pitkin grew up
in North Portland, graduated St. Mary's Academy, and attended the University
of Oregon. Family don't know why Pitkin turned to heroine, or why she never
came to them for help, but they say this could happen to anyone. "We're
losing young people to this awful opioid addiction. It's just sad, it's just
sad, beautiful people," said Mary Pitkin, Madaline's
mother. When asked if she felt vindicated by winning the lawsuit, Pitkin's mother
said, "How are you supposed to know, unless deaths stop happening like
this." "We hope we've had an impact; we've done all we can do to
shed a light on it. It's just tragic, and it's got to stop," said Russ
Pitkin. "We don't know what we can do beyond what we've done."
Previously, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said Corizon
Health had refused to resolve the Pitkin family’s claim, forcing the family
to file the federal lawsuit. Corizon Health stopped
providing medical services to the Washington County Jail on May 31, 2015. The
current health care provider is NaphCare Inc. A
spokesperson for the sheriff's office said, "Corizon
fully indemnified Washington County and Corizon is
liable for 100 percent of the judgment and legal fees." The Washington County
Sheriff's Office issued the following statement in response to the judge's
ruling: "The death of Madaline Pitkin was a
tragedy, and our thoughts are with her family. Since that incident, many
changes have been implemented to how healthcare is provided to inmates at the
Washington County Jail. Our current healthcare provider, NaphCare,
has piloted a program in Washington County to provide medication that helps
inmates who are detoxing from drugs. The success of that program has been
replicated in a number of other jails, and has proven to be an effective way
to treat those suffering from drug addiction. Washington County has also
hired an experienced contract administrator to work full-time at the jail for
the purpose of monitoring this healthcare contract and other contracts. Our
corrections staff remain dedicated to the safety and security of all
individuals in custody." Corizon Health CEO
Steve Rector issued the following statement: "As our Offer of Judgement
indicates, in 2014, our medical team at the Washington County Jail failed Madaline Pitkin and her family. The amount of this
settlement is unprecedented for our company and reflects how far removed the
facts of this case are from our standards and expectations of care. For
whatever small comfort this may provide, the lessons we’ve learned from this
case have been catalysts for significant changes we have made and are still
making to our clinical program. I was not at Corizon
Health when Ms. Pitkin was our patient but am deeply disappointed in our performance
at the time and feel tremendous sympathy for her parents and loved ones. The
company was reorganized in 2017, and today we operate with a new leadership
team and new Board that includes three independent directors. We are
committed to ensuring our company supports our teams in providing the best
possible care. At Corizon Health, we have amazingly
talented healthcare professionals who feel a sense of mission to care for
those who are incarcerated. This case does not reflect the commitment and compassion
that the vast majority of our staff bring to their jobs."
Mar
5, 2017 oregonlive.com
Washington County denies fault in 2014 death of inmate going through
heroin withdrawal
Washington County denies claims its jail medical policies and practices
caused the 2014 death of a female inmate as she was detoxing from heroin, and
it requests a $20 million lawsuit filed by her parents be dismissed. The
county filed a response in February to the federal lawsuit against the
sheriff, former jail health care provider Corizon
Health and others. It repeatedly denies allegations no medical staff examined
26-year-old Madaline Pitkin or that they took no
action in response to four health care request forms she filed over five days
in April. The county also denies claims no physician was at the jail the day
Pitkin died and for several days after, or that staff was indifferent to her
rights. The county disagrees with lawsuit allegations that a licensed nurse
practitioner at the jail incorrectly tabulated the results of a drug
evaluation of Pitkin and requested the wrong medication. It also opposes
characterizations of Pitkin as appearing "weakened" in jail
surveillance video footage in the days leading up to her death. Pitkin was
arrested by Tualatin police April 16, 2014, on suspicion of unlawful
possession of heroin. She was booked into jail the next day. Pitkin submitted
four written requests for medical help April 19, 20, 21 and 23 because heroin
withdrawal caused her to vomit and other ailments. She twice wrote that she
felt like she was near death. An investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive
found medical staff at the jail mostly discounted or mishandled Pitkin's
pleas. Staff repeatedly ranked her withdrawal symptoms as mild, and nurses
failed to track her low blood pressure. According to the lawsuit, no doctor
was working in the jail when she died because the jail's head doctor had been
fired. He worked his last shift the day before she died, the suit says.
Pitkin died in her jail cell April 24. An autopsy determined her cause of
death to have been chronic intravenous drug use, and the manner of death was
listed as natural. Washington County has since cut ties with Corizon Health. The Washington County District Attorney's
Office declined to file any charges in Pitkin's death in March 2015. In a
statement from the Washington County Sheriff's Office in November, Sheriff
Pat Garrett called Pitkin's death a tragedy and said he was "shocked and
dismayed to learn of Corizon's apparent lack of
response to her written requests for medical help." An investigation
found no criminal wrongdoing, he said, but did find "several very
troubling issues with the care Ms. Pitkin received." The sheriff said
the county would likely join Pitkin's parents in filing claims against Corizon in connection with the woman's death.
August 20, 2012 The Oregonian
The first-ever Washington County audit of its over-budget jail health services
has taken longer than expected because of legal roadblocks to obtaining
prisoner health information and contractor records, according to county
auditor John Hutzler's annual report.
Tennessee-based Corizon Correctional Healthcare, one of the largest prison
healthcare providers in the country, has a roughly $20 million, six-year
contract with Washington County. In 2011 the company merged with Prison
Health Services, the county's provider since 1997. During fiscal year
2011-12, which ended in June, the county's jail health services went $171,000
over its almost $4.6 million budget, according to the county's annual budget
report. "Cost overruns have been relatively common the past five, six
years," said Rod Branyan, director of the
Washington County Department of Health & Human Services. "You have
to understand the dynamics: The cost of health care is rising everywhere and
all it takes is a very sick couple of inmates to push those costs. Frankly,
we've had some really high-cost emergencies." In part to review whether
overruns were related to management issues, Hutzler
launched a jail health performance audit in October 2011. But his brief
update, to be presented to the Washington County Board of Commissioners
Tuesday morning, indicates that he only recently gained access to records,
and that the audit could now take up to another year to complete. Hutzler declined to comment before the board meeting. The
delay stemmed from an out-of-date contract that didn't list Hutzler as a county-approved officer under the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, meant to keep private health
records secure, Branyan said. But the lag also
points to a county unaccustomed to the more aggressive internal auditing that
Hutzler has launched since taking office in 2011.
The previous auditor, Alan Percell, held the
position for 28 years. "It was (Hutzler's)
first audit and what he requested was really a lot of information," Branyan said. "It took him nine months to get from
the field work to the survey." At an April meeting of a citizens group
of West Slope, Raleigh Hills and Garden Home residents, Hutzler
said he "has tried to add a professionalism" to the one-person
auditor's office, according to meeting minutes. He has added follow-up
reports to previous program audits and stressed dividing the process into
three distinct parts: survey, fieldwork and reporting. At that same Citizens
Participation Organization meeting, Hutzler
explained that the delay in accessing jail health documents "led to the
conclusion that the county needs to strengthen contract language,"
according to the minutes.
|
|
