The sister of a 56-year-old painter who died by suicide in Shasta County custody has been awarded $12.75 million in a case against the city, county and the jail's healthcare company – the largest settlement of its kind against Wellpath, the plaintiff's lawyers said.
Sherwin added that Wellpath didn't provide adequate jail staffing and illegally assigned employees who weren't registered nurses, all of which led to the suicide of Randall Johnson on Aug. 16, 2018.In court, Wellpath's attorney argued that Johnson's sister had "no cause of action for negligence" and also she had no standing to make a claim.
Redding police officers found Johnson half-naked in his driveway, incoherent, with an elevated heart rate, court records show. Randall Johnson told police he had injected and ingested $100 worth of methamphetamine in an attempt to take his own life. A Wellpath nurse wrote "no" when she filled out an intake report asking if Randall Johnson had taken drugs and determined he was medically fit to enter the jail.