‘I can’t breathe’: After man dies while restrained in jail, Jackson County pays $1.2M

Jackson County will spend $1.2 million to settle its part of a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of a 21-year-old man with “mental health concerns” who died in a restraint chair two years ago while in custody at the Jackson County Detention Center.

Left alone in his cell for hours, Marquis Wagner was caught on video repeatedly stating that he could not breathe, according to the lawsuit his parents filed against three jail guards and two companies the county contracted with to provide health care at the facilities.

The companies – Advanced Correctional Healthcare Inc. and Maxim Healthcare Staffing Service Inc. – did not join in the settlement, so the lawsuit will continue through the courts until they settle or the case goes to trial.

Wagner’s death received only a brief mention in local media when it happened based on a social media posting by Sheriff Darryl Forte, in which he stated that the findings of an autopsy were pending. Forte runs the detention center.

The results of that autopsy were inconclusive, but the gruesome events leading up to Wagner’s death were caught on jail video and have never been reported until now.

According to the lawsuit filed a year ago, Wagner was arrested on Dec. 10, 2021, a day after he fired a bullet through the door of his apartment because he thought he heard signs that someone was trying to break in.

Security camera footage showed no one was there. Wagner was arrested after telling police that, at the time of the gunshot, he had not slept for days and was seeing demons while in the process of detoxing from alcohol, the lawsuit said.

He was booked into the jail around 11 a.m. Jail surveillance cameras allegedly showed him having difficulty communicating. He wandered aimlessly and presented what the lawsuit said were “observable signs of an urgent medical/mental health condition.”

Despite that, he was not referred to an outside medical or mental health care facility, the suit said. Nor was he evaluated by medical staff at the detention center.

Instead, he was put into a cell alone in the jail’s intake area, where he stayed without food or water for eight hours, spoke to nonexistent people in his cell and ate toilet paper.

“At no time during that period … was he given a proper medical evaluation,” the lawsuit said.

That evening, after he had become more agitated, several members of the jail’s disturbance control team entered the cell and ordered Wagner to put his hands on the wall, the suit said. The team then forced him to the floor and handcuffed him.

They undressed him, put him in jail attire known as a “suicide smock,” which is designed to prevent someone from harming themselves, and strapped him into a restraint chair. His handcuffed hands were behind his back. They then cinched his waist and ankles with straps.

“During that time Marquis Wagner was secured to the restraint chair, he continued to verbalize that he was having trouble breathing and exhibited objective and observable signs of being in medical distress,” the lawsuit said.

“I can’t breathe,” Wagner said, according to the lawsuit. “I’m about to die… I need to feel my lungs.”

Jail staff took him to the nurse’s station in the chair at 8:40 p.m., where he continued to complain about having difficulty breathing, but no one examined him, the suit said. The nurses took no vital signs. Six minutes later, he was transported to a holding cell and left alone.

A half hour later, according to the lawsuit, the video shows that he appeared to have lost consciousness. It said that no one had come in to check on him. Shortly afterward, he is transported to another cell.

The guard in charge, Henry Osuagwu, who is named as a defendant, allegedly then ordered other staffers to take Wagner out of the restraint chair, strip him naked and place him face down on a cot with his hands behind his back.

“At some point JCDC staff members became aware that Marquis Wagner was not moving or breathing,” the lawsuit said. Attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful. Paramedics arrived, and shortly before midnight he was pronounced dead at Truman Medical Center.

When asked what changes, if any, were made made in jail policy after Wagner’s death, Forte said only that “the safety, security and wellness of all remain a priority.

The Jackson County Legislature approved the settlement agreement Monday without comment. But later, legislator Manny Abarca, whose district includes the jail, issued the following statement in a text message:

“We have a responsibility to hold individuals safe within our care as they seek equal justice under the law and it’s seriously concerning that these contractors are still in place and no clear policies have been made known to prevent future incidents like this from occurring.

“It’s why I had to abstain from this settlement. I have asked the Sheriff and staff about programs and treatments at the new facility for which he has been less than forthcoming with his plan for rectifying many of the human rights violations clear and apparent from the current facility.”

Numerous lawsuits have been filed against Jackson County alleging mistreatment or negligence of prisoners with medical conditions in recent years at the downtown detention center.

The county is building a new, $300 million jail. The same day that legislators approved the settlement, the team building that detention center announced that everything is on schedule for its opening about two years from now.

“Justice with Dignity” is the project slogan.