Star Tribune
Staff at Anoka jail withheld opioid withdrawal meds from inmate who collapsed, was injured
Vomit covered Deyonta Green’s face while blood pooled in his skull by the time Anoka County Jail staff finally intervened in a harrowing and untreated weeklong spiral of heroin withdrawals, according to a new lawsuit filed this week.
The 58-page complaint filed this week is just the latest lawsuit to take aim at MEnD Correctional Care, an embattled for-profit private health care provider based in Sartell that had been used by other Minnesota counties to provide jail services.
According to the suit, contracted medical staff in the Anoka jail refused to give the 25-year-old Champlin, Minn., man his prescribed medication used to treat opioid withdrawals. He informed the jail during his intake that he had a Suboxone prescription and had just ingested heroin earlier on the day of his February 2022 arrest. Green instead endured sleeplessness, diarrhea and vomiting as he frequently asked for the medication. By the time Green was rushed out of the jail for emergency medical intervention after a fall, he had multiple brain bleeds, skull fractures and acute kidney failure, among other maladies.
Anoka County contracted with MEnD in 2020 despite, Green’s attorneys say, knowing that the company was a “deliberately indifferent medical ‘provider'” and remained in the contract despite “glaring and persisting deficiencies” that included insufficient staffing at the jail.
Kathryn Bennett, an attorney representing Green, wrote in her complaint that MEnD staff carried out “wholly inadequate well-being checks on individuals suffering from known and severe opioid withdrawal.” Bennett accused MEnD of having a cost-savings model that leaned on lesser qualified assistants, nurses or health techs “as the boots on the ground” in place of physicians at the jails where it contracted to provide services.
Tierney Peters, a spokesperson for the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office, said Friday that the office was “reviewing the complaint and other relevant information with our attorney’s office and will issue a response to the complaint at the appropriate time.”
“The Anoka County Sheriff’s Office continues to take the responsibility of caring for those legally confined to jail very seriously and remains committed to helping inmates leave the facility in a healthier condition than when they enter,” Peters said.
Green was booked into the jail on Feb. 5, 2022, after failing to report for a 180-day sentence for felony possession of a controlled substance. Bennett wrote that Green was not allowed access to his Suboxone and was instead prescribed “pharmacological band-aids” such as anti-nausea and anti-anxiety medication, and over-the-counter pain relief pills days into his worsening symptoms. Stopping or abruptly cutting back on Suboxone can also lead to severe and painful withdrawal symptoms like those of other opioids, Bennett wrote.
A corrections officer noted on Feb. 9 that Green was covered in feces and vomit and had to be provided new clothing items. The officer helped Green clean his cell and departed with “a verbal warning about keeping his cell neat and clean.” Around 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 12, 2022, an officer found Green in an “awkward position” lying in his stomach on the floor of his cell after a noise alerted him to the cell. Green is believed to have collapsed in the cell, severely injuring his head in the process.
There were no medical personnel at the jail in the early morning hours that day. Green’s lawyers say jail staff documented making 55 well-being checks on Green during his stay — far fewer than the 480 that Bennett said Green’s condition would’ve warranted by state law.
Green was later rushed to HCMC to treat multiple skull fractures and a brain bleed and was discharged from HCMC on March 6, 2022. He still requires follow-up care because of the traumatic brain injury and persistent cognitive issues stemming from it.
Two unnamed corrections officers as well as three medical workers – Michelle Skroch, Holly Jensrud, and Monica Calvario – are being sued alongside the county.
Green’s lawsuit alleges multiple Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment violations. He is seeking a money judgment against jail and medical staff, as well as Anoka County. Green’s attorneys also want an order mandating changes in the policies and procedures of the Anoka County Jail, “requiring among other things, policy/training changes to ensure that prescription medications carrying known and obvious withdrawal risks are properly administered.”
Bennett pointed out that the numerous civil rights lawsuits against MEnD should have been red flags to Anoka County when it considered doing business with the company: At least four lawsuits involved inmate deaths, including a woman whose opioid withdrawals led her to lose 17 pounds in four days at that jail. The 2018 death of Hardel Sherrell in Beltrami County Jail led the county to end its contract with MEnD early and prompted an FBI investigation. Sherrell, 27, had been in the jail nine days when he died of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare disorder that causes the immune system to attack nerves. Beltrami and MeND agreed to pay $2.6 million last year in a settlement in the case.
In January 2022, the state medical board indefinitely suspended the license of Dr. Todd Leonard, MeND’s owner, before restoring it late last year. At the time of suspension, the board adopted the findings of an administrative law judge who noted that Leonard’s violations were so severe that “disciplinary action is not only warranted, but it is in the public interest.” Leonard previously admitted to failing to document risks of suicide, failing to document addictions and “exhibiting inappropriate prescribing practices.”
Those disclosures prompted the Minnesota Nurses’ Association to ask all Minnesota counties to terminate any contracts with MEnD in November 2021. MeND filed for bankruptcy in December 2022 and terminated its remaining health care services with Minnesota counties, according to news reports.
Star Tribune
Crypto mining firm to move Glencoe, MN, site, become AI data center
If Revolve Labs, formerly known as Bit49, can start bringing in revenue at the new AI data center, the company should be able to move or decommission the machines at the existing site, St. Onge said.
“The ideal would be to phase out our current site and move everything over to the new site,” St. Onge said at the public hearing.
Several Glencoe residents at Tuesday’s public hearing, which addressed whether to rezone the property Revolve Labs intends to buy, appeared skeptical about the company’s proposal. “Revolve Labs has not proven themselves to be good neighbors,” Gould said to St. Onge at the hearing.
Eddie Gould, 80, confronts a representative from Revolve Labs, a Colorado-based company that runs a crypto-mining facility near his home, at a public hearing Tuesday in Glencoe, Minn. (Jp Lawrence)
But many at the public hearing seemed to welcome the possibility that the company might remove the noisy machines at its current site, which is near the town’s 646,000 square-foot Seneca Foods plant, a Dairy Queen and the corner of a residential neighborhood.
Crypto mining uses huge amounts of computing power, which need to be cooled by banks of fans. Over the past few years, the noise of these fans has led to complaints from residents living near crypto mining facilities across America.
In southwestern Minnesota, similar concerns about noise led to dozens of residents in Windom voicing their opposition in August to a conditional use application by Revolve Labs to build a facility there. The company pulled out of the proposal a month later, citing feedback from the community.
Star Tribune
Shawn Fagan tapped to lead the Rochester Downtown Alliance
Longtime business owner and photographer Shawn Fagan has been named the next executive director of the Rochester Downtown Alliance (RDA).
Fagan, who had been on the RDA’s staff as a deputy director since the summer, takes over for Kathleen Harrington, who led the organization in an interim capacity for the past year and a half.
“Shawn’s passion for downtown, his collaborative spirit, and his strategic vision for growth make him the perfect choice to lead the RDA forward,” Harrington said in a written statement.
Fagan and his wife, Michelle, have been involved in the downtown since 2003 when they opened a photography studio along South Broadway. They later bought the 151-year-old building and added an event space, Studio 324, that they continue to operate. For their contributions to downtown, the couple received the Sandy Keith Downtown Impact Award recipient in 2021.
The Fagans also own Café Aquí, a coffee shop just outside the city’s special services district.
With his new role, Fagan will be responsible for leading the downtown business community through a period of major anticipation and disruption tied to Mayo Clinic’s $5 billion build-out.
The RDA, which represents more than 300 downtown stakeholders, is best known for putting on popular events like Thursdays Downtown and Social-ICE. The organization is also responsible for managing a public service program that provides cleaning, hospitality and safety services to the 44-block district.
Star Tribune
Minneapolis Market mass shooting among 5 homicides in federal RICO charges against Lows gang
Five Minneapolis homicides — including a February mass shooting outside a market — are at the heart of the latest federal racketeering case to take aim at a street gang in the city. The latest target: the northside-based Lows, described by law enforcement as the most violent among its peers.
The new charges, announced Wednesday by U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger, chart a three-year path of bloodshed that saw rivals and bystanders alike killed amid a long-running gang war. Eleven alleged members of the Lows are named in the indictment, which also includes allegations of gun and drug trafficking.
“The murders and shootings alleged in this indictment should shock the conscience of every law-abiding citizen in the city,” Luger said in a press conference Wednesday. “To put it simply, the existence of the Lows gang constitutes a threat to the sanctity of human life and we will continue to take all appropriate steps under the law to remove this threat.”
The Lows indictment bookends an initiative launched by Luger’s office in May 2023 to use complex conspiracy charges to disrupt Minneapolis’ most prominent gangs. The charges follow similar indictments against alleged members of the Bloods, 10z/20z and Highs gangs and brings the tally of those charged to beyond 90 people. Earlier this month, Luger’s office won its first racketeering conviction since starting this work when a jury found three alleged Bloods members guilty of charges that covered racketeering and using a firearm to carry out murder.
All of those charged in this latest case — some of whom have related state prosecutions pending — are in custody and were expected to make first appearances in St. Paul. None of them had attorneys listed as representing them as of late Wednesday, according to the federal court docket.
The Lows street gang has existed in Minneapolis since about 2004 and claims as its territory a section of north Minneapolis south of Broadway Avenue while the rival Highs gang operates north of that road. According to court documents, the murder that year of 18-year-old Christopher Little, identified by law enforcement as “a known Lows member,” intensified a rivalry with the Highs that has since included “hundreds of shootings and murders” in their territories.
A grand jury on Monday returned the latest 18-count indictment under seal charging 11 alleged Lows members with crimes including racketeering conspiracy involving murder, attempted murder, gun trafficking and drug trafficking. The indictment charged 78 “overt acts committed in furtherance of the enterprise” – including seven murders or attempted murders involving 10 victims. Bystanders were struck on two occasions. A judge unsealed the charges Wednesday amid the first federal court appearances in the case.
Those charged include: Ashimiyu Alowonle III, 38; Timothy Calender III, 26; Glenn Carter III, 23; Victor Collins, 22; Damari Douglas, 20; Deontae Jackson, 35; Shannon Jackson, 32; Robert Knights Jr, 19; Albert Lucas V, 20; Kaprice Richards, 23; Cartrelle Smith, 27.