Former Morgan jail inmate wins court battle against jail, medical provider

Sep. 8—A former Morgan County Jail inmate disregarded the adage that an individual representing himself in court has a "fool for a client" and managed a partial victory over the county's previous sheriff and other defendants in a federal appellate court last week.

John Andrew Kister, 58, filed a handwritten complaint in 2016 against Quality Correctional Health Care, the medical provider for the Morgan County Jail, as well as then-Sheriff Ana Franklin and various jail employees.

Kister was diagnosed with priapism, or prolonged erection of the penis with accompanying pain, in 2005 while incarcerated in Michigan. In 2006, doctors diagnosed him with neuropathy due to damage to the nerve running from the bladder to the penis, caused by his bout of priapism.

Kister was incarcerated in the Morgan County Jail from May 2015 to November 2018 on four counts of armed robbery. According to Kister and medical records he filed, doctors had previously prescribed tramadol and concluded it was the only effective treatment for his penile condition.

"I have asked for tramadol to relieve my pain from employees of Quality Correctional Health Care," he wrote in his complaint. "I was told this is a 'no narcotic' facility" by QCHC and Franklin.

QCHC refused to prescribe tramadol, Kister said, but did prescribe antidepressants that he said caused urinary retention and an increase in his pain. One of the QCHC doctors wrote in medical records that Kister had "questionable penile pain" and was exhibiting drug-seeking behavior.

When he complained about the jail's "no narcotics" policy, Kister said, the sheriff and others retaliated against him by placing him "in 'medical observation' three times, which is solitary confinement in the back of the medical department."

Kister said between 2006 and his incarceration in the Morgan County Jail, a dozen different doctors had determined he needed tramadol.

"I have 12 doctors in agreement versus one jail doctor," Kister wrote. "You have one doctor versus 12, and that one doctor is more credible? I proved I have neuropathy. I proved I was on narcotic pain medication when I entered the jail, and I proved the defendants failed to provide that same level of care because of a no narcotic policy."

The defendants asserted that inmates were not completely barred from narcotics, which could be prescribed for acute pain but not chronic pain, but each time Kister was referred to a medical provider outside the jail that provider was instructed of the jail's "no narcotic" policy.

Kister filed dozens of handwritten motions in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, where he was opposed by four lawyers from various large firms. Ultimately the District Court in February 2020 threw out his complaint on the ground that it did not allege facts that supported a claim for a constitutional violation.

Siding with attorneys for the defendants, the court ruled that "at best, the plaintiff established he did not receive the medical care he wanted. He has not shown that any defendant acted with deliberate indifference to his complaints of pain, but rather that he disagreed with the manner in which those medical providers sought to proceed."

Kister appealed to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

At issue was whether Kister had alleged facts sufficient to go to trial. The appellate court on Aug. 29 reversed the district court, determining that the case could proceed to a trial.

"Kister argues that the record contains sufficient evidence to defeat summary judgment because a reasonable factfinder could conclude the denial of tramadol was based on the Jail's no-narcotics policy, not on the independent judgment of the medical professionals," the court ruled. "We agree."

Kister left the Morgan County Jail in 2018 after being convicted of robbing four Morgan County convenience stores while armed with a knife. Morgan County Circuit Court Judge Glenn Thompson, who has since retired, ruled Kister was a habitual offender and sentenced him to four consecutive life sentences. He now is an inmate at Bullock Correctional Facility.

— eric@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2435. Twitter @DD_Fleischauer.