Family of man who died after jumping from Ingham County Jail van files wrongful death lawsuit

LANSING — The family of a Lansing man who died after he jumped from an Ingham County Jail van as he was being taken from a courthouse to the jail has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the county.

An Ingham County deputy was driving Marquis Oliver, 21, and 10 others back to the jail in Mason after hearings on Oct. 23, 2019, at the Ingham County courthouse in Lansing when Oliver jumped out of the van. 

He had been able to get out of his seat, slip out of belly chains and handcuffs he was wearing and open the van door — which was not supposed to open from the inside of the vehicle. He jumped onto U.S. 127.

Oliver was taken to the hospital, but died later that night from his injuries. Three agencies — Michigan State Police, the sheriff's office and the Ingham County Medical Examiner's Office — all determined Oliver’s death to be a suicide.

Ingham County Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth declined to comment on the lawsuit. After Oliver's 2019 death, he said the department would check every door handle in other vehicles to ensure they are deactivated.

“If I could go back to (yesterday) morning, I’d disengage the handle,” Wriggelsworth said in 2019. "This happened under my watch. One time is too many.”

Second lawsuit

This wrongful death lawsuit is the second lawsuit Oliver’s family has filed. The first, which was dismissed by an Ingham County judge and is currently awaiting a hearing in the Michigan Court of Appeals, claimed gross negligence by the deputies, the company that outfitted the van and the county mechanic. The court ruled the deputies are protected by legal immunity.

In the vans usually used to transport people to and from the jail, passengers in the back cannot open the door because the handle is behind a steel cage. The van used that day did not have a steel cage, nor was the handle disengaged as it should have been, which allowed Oliver to open the door.

Delhi Township-based Mid-Michigan Emergency Equipment Sales and Services, the company that outfitted the van, said it never assumed the responsibility of disengaging the van's locking mechanism, nor did it have the duty to do so, according to a motion the company filed in the initial lawsuit.

A multi-department investigation found that no one requested the company disable the handle. The county's mechanic also did not disable the handle because the company usually did so, he told investigators.

The county disciplined the mechanic, who was not named in the most recent lawsuit, because he failed to ensure the locks were disengaged, Maj. Darin Southworth testified during a deposition

Changes in policy after Oliver's death

In December 2019, Wriggelsworth said the department had implemented a checklist it must go through for in-servicing vehicles and that it would be exploring options for restraints for people with diverse body styles.

Because Oliver was slim, the restraints were loose on him and deputies had trouble getting them to stay, according to the investigative report.

Another change is that two deputies must be present while transporting people who are held in the maximum-security parts of the jail, Southworth said during his deposition.

Contact reporter Kara Berg at 517-377-1113 or kberg@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @karaberg95.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Wrongful death lawsuit filed after man died in jump from Ingham jail van