IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR

THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE AT CHATTANOOGA

ESTATE OF FAWN ZANETTE BRANHAM, )

b/n/k and ADMINISTRATOR AD LITEM )
ALEXIS Z. POPE, )
)
Plaintiff, )
)
V. )
)
BRADLEY COUNTY, TENNESSEE, )
GOVERNMENT, QUALITY ) CASE NO. ________________
CORRECTIONAL HEALTH CARE, )
ERIC WATSON, individually and officially, )
GABE THOMAS, individually and officially, )
CHIEF BRADFORD, individually and officially, )
CAROLE EDWARDS, individually and officially, )
LPN CHARQUETTE NELSON, individually and ) JURY TRIAL DEMANDED
Officially, LPN TASHA BOWERS, individually )
And officially, NURSE SAM BROWN, )
Individually and officially, DOCTOR JOHNNY )
BATES, individually and officially, OFFICER R. )
RANKIN, individually and officially, )
OFFICER EMILY COOK, individually and )
Officially, OFFICER PAULA SMITH, )
Individually and officially, NURSE NAOMI )
BAKER, individually and officially, NURSE )
SANDRA KENJERSKI, individually and )
Officially, NURSE AMY HUGHES, individually )
And officially, and JOHN DOE, individually and )
Officially, )
)
Defendants. )

COMPLAINT

COMES the Plaintiff, by and through undersigned counsel, and herein files the following

claim for damages and relief against Bradley County, Tennessee, Quality Correctional Health

Care, and the individual Defendants:

Page 1 of 19

Case 1:19-cv-00230-TAV-SKL Document 1 Filed 08/15/19 Page 1 of 19 PageID #: 1

 I

This case presents federal questions arising from the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments

to the United States Constitution, thus providing this federal district court with original

jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1331 and U.S.C. 1343. As the alleged acts and omissions

occurred solely in Bradley County, Tennessee, venue is proper in this court, whose district

includes Bradley County. Alexis Z. Pope is a resident of Polk County, Tennessee, and is the

daughter of the decedent, Fawn Zanette Branham.

II

For the purposes of this case, Quality Correctional Health Care (hereinafter referred to as

"QCHC") is a business entity without either an agent for service of process in Tennessee or any

Bradley County business license. Upon information and belief, QCHC has no agent for service

of process in Alabama; yet, QCHC has a major corporate presence in Birmingham, Alabama,

where many departments carry out a variety of business functions.

III

For the purposes of this case, QCHC has at all times acted under color of law inasmuch

as it has contracted with Bradley County, Tennessee to undertake what is traditionally a core

municipal function, to wit, the provision of health care to inmates who have no means of exiting

their confinement to obtain their own.

IV

Thus, QCHC, as well as Bradley County, is subject to 42 U.S.C. 1983 et seq. These acts

of Congress, dating to 1871, are simply mechanisms for enforcing the rights enshrined in the

United States Constitution, especially when those violating them act under the color of law.

Page 2 of 19

Case 1:19-cv-00230-TAV-SKL Document 1 Filed 08/15/19 Page 2 of 19 PageID #: 2

 PRELUDE TO TRAGEDY

On August 14, 2018, Fawn Branham arrived at the Bradley County Jail, held there for

failure to appear to answer the allegation that she had accrued unpaid child support. On that date,

both of Fawn's children were well into their twenties (20’s).

VI

On the same date, both Ms. Branham and the QCHC staff noted that Fawn's abdominal

area was noticeably distended.

VII

On August 15, 2018, there was a marked decline in her health, as Officer Rankin noted

that afternoon that Fawn was “throwing up blood.” Ms. Branham also complained of heartburn,

diarrhea, and according to Rankin was "laying in bed all day.” Rankin called the nurse several

times that afternoon. Rankin had noted the same symptoms that morning. Even earlier, at about

6:00 a.m. the same day, QCHC employee Sam Brown noted vomiting, and "yellowish sclera,”

but in what appears to be a disjointed or reconfigured entry, stated that "she states her stomach

doesn't hurt and been present for the past year.”

VIII

Yet, in the same breath, on August 15, 2018, there was a marked decline in her health,

and a QCHC employee also noted Fawn Branham's "abdominal distention.” He mentioned

GERD. Despite her vomiting up blood, her obvious distension, her general malaise, and her rapid

deterioration, there was no transport to the nearby emergency room for inmate Fawn Zanette

Branham.

Page 3 of 19

Case 1:19-cv-00230-TAV-SKL Document 1 Filed 08/15/19 Page 3 of 19 PageID #: 3

 IX

By the morning of August 16, the seeds of disaster had sprouted. Just after midnight,

QCHC nurse Sandra Kenjerski noted that Fawn "was vomiting large amounts of dark brown

tinged vomit" and that her bowel sounds, once normal, were now "sluggish.” Yet, QCHC

employees refused to declare an emergency, even after QCHC employee Amy Hughes noted

later that same day that the "inmate continues vomiting large amounts of blood.” Hughes' notes

indicate that Fawn's blood pressure had fallen to 118/80, a dramatic drop from that recorded at

her intake. Her heartburn and abdominal distention did not abate, but "not an emergency" was

the diagnostic blurb issued from an absent QCHC provider, who was evaluating Fawn remotely.

Two (2) days of vomiting blood had now passed without a simple visit to the emergency

department.

The next day brought worse. On August 17, Naomi Baker of QCHC found Fawn lying on

her bottom bunk, complaining that she "could not breathe.” Nonetheless, Baker stated that Fawn

was "in no acute distress.” A lame diagnosis it was, made with deliberate indifference to the fact

that Fawn's blood pressure had fallen to 92/80. Fawn's heart was racing at one hundred thirty-two

(132) beats per minute. Once again, instead of receiving the services of a nearby Emergency

Room, Fawn was left in the hands of minimally licensed caregivers, such as Naomi Baker.

XI

Some employees on the QCHC staff mocked Fawn, or told her that she was "faking it.”

The observable and objectively manifested combination of vomiting blood, plunging blood

pressure, a seriously elevated pulse rate, a distended abdomen, and impaired breathing did not,

Page 4 of 19

Case 1:19-cv-00230-TAV-SKL Document 1 Filed 08/15/19 Page 4 of 19 PageID #: 4

according to the QCHC staff, constitute a medical condition serious enough to merit Fawn a

single doctor's visit.

XII

By this time, if not earlier, other inmates were reporting the gravity of Fawn's condition,

but these reports were not recorded by the QCHC staff, or someone has deleted any such reports.

Even these non-medical persons realized the gravity of Fawn's rapidly deteriorating health, a

serious predicament that the QCHC staff allowed to fester when simple measures, if rendered

outside the jail, would likely have reversed it.

XIII

On August 19, death began beckoning. Fawn passed out and was lying on the floor, with

a pulse racing at one hundred seventeen (117) while her blood pressure remained a low 102/62.

Bowel sounds were hypoactive, and Fawn was again vomiting, and was passing black stool.

QCHC employee Tasha Bowers, not believing Fawn, told her to report back "the next time she

vomits or has a bowel movement.”

XIV

On the morning of August 20, Fawn faced similar and even more incredible indifference

from LPN Charquette Nelson, a QCHC employee who noted Fawn's dangerously low blood

pressure of 84/42 but did not summon an ambulance or ask for ER transport. No action, despite

Fawn's pulse of 109, and a hugely abnormal EKG reading from the previous morning

indicating that Fawn was suffering from inferior and anterolateral ischemia. In addition, Nelson

herself recorded that Fawn presented on the morning of August 20 with nausea, dilated pupils,

epigastric pain, and a mention of rheumatic fever. That morning, Fawn urinated on herself.

Unsympathetic, Nelson claimed that Fawn had thrown herself on the floor.

Page 5 of 19

Case 1:19-cv-00230-TAV-SKL Document 1 Filed 08/15/19 Page 5 of 19 PageID #: 5

 XV

At about the same time, Officer Rankin, after witnessing Fawn's "spitting up and

gagging,” asked Nurse Amy to use smelling salts to prompt Fawn to rise from the floor and get

into a wheelchair. Rankin then wheeled Fawn back to her pod, where Rankin noted there were

human wastes abounding. Yet, Rankin refused any cleaning help from a volunteer inmate, stating

that it was too hazardous. Instead, Rankin twice ordered Fawn to clean it up.

XVI

Soon, Fawn was lying in her bunk alone, the other women having vacated because of

concerns for health and habitation. With her shirt off, her pants undone, and left unattended in

her own wastes, Fawn Zanette Branham died on August 20, 2018 at a little before 3:00 p.m.,

expiring in a state of utter and deliberate neglect, leaving life two (2) hours after being ordered to

clean up her mess, and passing on without the benefit of having seen a single doctor on any of

the six (6) days on which her serious medical condition manifested itself so plainly, and often

grotesquely, to jailers and nurses alike.

BRADLEY COUNTY'S STATUTORY DUTIES

XVII

T.C.A. § 8-20-120 and 8-24-103, taken together, command the Tennessee Sheriffs and

County Commissioners to provide priority funding for the county jails. If a Sheriff lacks the

public funding for his or her "statutorily mandated duties,” T.C.A. § 8-24-103 authorizes a

sheriff to seek a writ of mandamus to compel a county legislative body to fund those duties. One

such duty, as specifically mandated by T.C.A. § 41-4-115(a) is the provision of medical care to

the prisoners.

Page 6 of 19

Case 1:19-cv-00230-TAV-SKL Document 1 Filed 08/15/19 Page 6 of 19 PageID #: 6

 XVIII

During his campaign in 2014, candidate for sheriff, Eric Watson, recognized that the jail

had serious problems and said so across the hustings of Bradley County. Yet, once sworn in,

Watson was reluctant to structure and advocate for a budget adequate to meet and solve major

problems. Soon, agents from the Tennessee Corrections Institute (TCI) found that his penal

facility was overcrowded, understaffed, and unsanitary, and beset by major plumbing and

ventilation problems. There was a spate of jail deaths and injuries, one of which involved an

inmate who went untreated after vomiting blood.

XIX

Instead of facing these problems squarely, Watson fudged documents to make it appear

that the jail had a larger staff than it had in actuality. As Commissioner Rawls pointed out,

Watson did this by including in the jail budget those who didn't actually work in the jail. Before

too long, the jail was repeatedly failing inspections and sometimes turning away prisoners

because of the overcrowding. Some high-ranking veteran officials, like Gilley, Botts, Smith, and

Lawson, left in disgust or frustration, as Watson's intransigence made it impossible for them to

carry out their mission. On June 14, 2017, the resigning Gilley noted that the jail was

operating "with about one-half the staff it needs."

XX

Yet, after multiple failed inspections and the untimely demises or catastrophes that befell

inmates Ray, Yerber, Newell, and Dover, Watson and the County Mayor were pleased to

announce on March 29, 2016 that the Bradley County Sheriff’s Office budget would be cut by

$275,000.00.

Page 7 of 19

Case 1:19-cv-00230-TAV-SKL Document 1 Filed 08/15/19 Page 7 of 19 PageID #: 7

 XXI

Because Watson made some last-minute corrections late in 2017, The TCI did not revoke

his jail's certification, but a reversion to form was just around the corner, as the jail failed a

surprise inspection on February 27, 2018. By then, Watson was absorbed by his May 2018

primary contest with Steve Lawson, so he left the jail in a state of frightful neglect. There were

near riots because the food was so bad, and the chronic under-staffing caused the prisoners to be

held on “lockdown" for days on end. After losing the primary, Watson vacationed often and was

seen less and less on Blythe Avenue.

XXII

In August of 2018, the month that inmate Fawn Branham died, the Bradley County jail

was holding over six hundred (600) prisoners, though its maximum capacity is four hundred

eight (408).

THE JAILERS

XXIII

Both the nurses and jailers refused to send Fawn to a doctor. They wouldn't spare her the

expense of an emergency room visit, though she begged to see a doctor, offered to pay for her

own visit, pleaded that she be allowed to live to see her grandchildren, and literally moaned for

help. She sometimes screamed for it and pushed the buzzer or button repeatedly in her cell, so

that she could make her serious needs known. Officers Emily Cook, Paula Smith, and R. Rankin

heard her pleas, saw Fawn's blood, saw visible evidence that she couldn't contain her bowels,

saw the EKG diagnosis of double ischemia, knew about the alarming drop in her blood pressure,

and generally witnessed her marked and rapid physical decline, which began when she threw up

blood on at least three (3) occasions on August 15.

Page 8 of 19

Case 1:19-cv-00230-TAV-SKL Document 1 Filed 08/15/19 Page 8 of 19 PageID #: 8

 XXIV

Though each officer knew that Fawn had been throwing up blood since August 15, each

denied her pleas to be taken to a doctor. By failing to provide the simple and adequate health

care required by the United States Constitution, Officers Cook, Smith, and Rankin subjected

Fawn to cruel and unusual punishment, thereby violating her rights under the Eighth and

Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Each Officer acted under color of

law, and each failed to intercede to stop these Constitutional violations that the other Officers

were committing in her presence, though each had sufficient knowledge, as well as the power

and duty, to make what could have been a life-saving intercession.

XXV

Officers Cook and Rankin disbelieved Fawn, though it was Cook who declared an

emergency at around 14:56 on August 20, 2018. Hers was a hapless, futile, and belated gesture.

With Fawn already lifeless, the T.B.I. came to the scene. Firemen rushed into her cell, and the

County Coroner arrived at about the same time as did a quartet of Bradley County EMS medics.

Just a fraction of that attention, if timely, would have saved her life, but Officers Cook and

Rankin were too preoccupied with mocking Fawn or telling Fawn that she was "faking it" to do

the right and legal thing.

XXVI

By exhibiting a deliberate indifference to what they knew to be Fawn's serious and

manifestly declining medical condition, Officers Cook, Rankin, and Smith are liable for damages

under 42 U.S.C. 1983; by condoning, empowering, and failing to intercede to stop the others'

unconstitutional acts, each Officer violated 42 U.S.C. 1986, and by acting under color of law to

stifle the truth of their egregious conduct, Cook and Rankin violated 42 U.S.C. 1988.

Page 9 of 19

Case 1:19-cv-00230-TAV-SKL Document 1 Filed 08/15/19 Page 9 of 19 PageID #: 9

 THE QCHC INDIFFERENCE

XXVII

QCHC employees Brown, Nelson, Baker, Bowers, Hughes, and Kenjerski were

employed in the jail between August 15 and August 20. Each was acting under the color of law,

as their job was to take care of the medical needs of Bradley County's prison population. Each

witnessed the marked decline of Fawn Zanette Branham, which began with her thrice (at least)

vomiting blood on August 15, 2018. Each knew that she vomited blood voluminously the

following day, had sluggish bowel sounds, and was not improving. If they had monitored her

diet, which each failed to do, any would have seen that Fawn was hardly eating, if at all. Her

abdominal distension was increasing daily, right before their eyes. Without nutrition, Fawn often

lay listless, complaining that she could not breathe.

XXVIII

Hughes or Kenjerski heard from a remote provider that there was no emergency, so each

did nothing, so deliberately indifferent that they chose to believe an absent entity over what their

eyes and ears plainly told them. Both saw the constant and voluminous blood that Fawn was

throwing up and knew themselves that her condition presented a serious medical need. Each

knew there was neither the technology or expertise within the prison to treat what they knew was

a patient in serious and manifest decline.

XXIX

Each individual QCHC Defendant was acutely aware of the horrid condition of Fawn's

cell, as they were aware of her inability to control her bowels. Yet, on August 17, 2018, Naomi

Baker wrote that Fawn was "in no acute distress,” though her breathing was labored and her

pulse racing along at 132.

Page 10 of 19

Case 1:19-cv-00230-TAV-SKL Document 1 Filed 08/15/19 Page 10 of 19 PageID #: 10

 XXX

On August 19, Bowers exhibited deliberate indifference to Fawn's vomiting and passing

black stools, telling Fawn that this wasn't observed, so next time let her know when she "vomits

or has a bowel movement.”

XXXI

By not requesting an ambulance or transport to a nearby doctor who could have

addressed what each knew to be Fawn's rapidly deteriorating and serious medical condition,

every QCHC nurse subjected Fawn to cruel and inhuman treatment, thereby violating her rights

under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Still acting

under color of law, each QCHC employee failed to intercede to stop these Constitutional

violations that others were committing in his or her presence, though each had the power and

duty to effect what could have been a life-saving intercession.

XXXII

Early on August 19, 2018, an EKG indicated that there was double ischemia, or

blockages of cardiac blood flow both inferiorly and anterolaterally. Fawn's blood pressure again

fell, this time to 84/42. Yet, no QCHC employee would transport Fawn to a doctor or hospital,

nor did any request that a Bradley County employee do so. Charquette Nelson, knowing

both that Fawn's blood pressure had dropped and that Fawn suffered double ischemia, still failed

to take the simple steps necessary to stem what Nelson knew was a serious and deleterious

medical condition. She knew that Fawn was dying before her eyes and deliberately chose to do

nothing. This conscious neglect was both unconscionable and shocking in its depravity,

exceeding even deliberate indifference in its abject cruelty.

Page 11 of 19

Case 1:19-cv-00230-TAV-SKL Document 1 Filed 08/15/19 Page 11 of 19 PageID #: 11

 THE BRASS

XXXIII

On August 15, 2018, the Bradley County Jail had over six hundred (600) inmates in a

facility meant for four hundred eight (408). The jail was overcrowded because, as Sheriff, Eric

Watson deliberately chose to increase the arrest rate, posing as an advocate for law and order. In

truth, Watson was enjoying the financial fruits of his clampdown through his wife, Tenille, who

received a bonding permit at about the same time that Watson first donned his Sheriff's badge.

Together, they would attend and direct police roadblocks, where his arrests too often became her

bonds.

XXXIV

As August was to be his last month in office, the defeated Watson virtually abandoned

his duties as Sheriff, vacationing out-of-state, or frequently crossing over to North Carolina on

weekend junkets. Yet, the outgoing Sheriff was keenly aware that his policies had overcrowded

his jail, from which Bradley County also benefited, as Federal and State agents paid Bradley

County a sizable per diem to transport or house prisoners. This revenue, when added to the huge

amounts of money Bradley County made by selling food and services to inmates in an

overcrowded prison, was the bedrock of a profitable business model, at least for Bradley County.

Revenue from fines, costs, and fees paid by citizens on endless probation for small offenses

further swelled its coffers.

XXXV

Amidst all that extraction, the Sheriff would not advocate for increased funding for a jail

that was clearly overcrowded. He shifted payroll expenses to the jail to give the appearance of

adequate staffing. An exasperated County Commissioner said that veterinarians and animal

Page 12 of 19

Case 1:19-cv-00230-TAV-SKL Document 1 Filed 08/15/19 Page 12 of 19 PageID #: 12

 shelters took better care of their pets than Watson did of his prisoners. He was rebuked by a

female Commissioner, who said that his statement proved he had "gone to the dark side.”

XXXVI

The spate of jail deaths during his tenure made no difference. The jail continued to be

under-staffed, its salaries to starting Officers not competitive, and its turnover rate astronomical.

Failed TCI inspections were the rule, not the exception. Properly training new correction officers

in such an environment proved well-nigh impossible.

XXXVII

In 2009, QCHC lobbied Bradley County for a contract to provide prison care and won

it. QCHC officer Justin Barkley came to Bradley County, where he confidently stated that he

could provide most medical services that the inmates needed right there in the prison. He

promised to work with Bradley County to train jailers to coordinate with the QCHC nurses to

recognize health problems among inmates. Yet, such training rarely, if ever, occurred, and there

is no entry in the Bradley County budget to indicate that any such training took place.

XXXVIII

QCHC had no doctor on the prison site during the six (6) days of August 15, 16, 17, 18,

19, and 20. During those days, no one on staff was trained or experienced in recognizing, much

less treating, the medical problems of a fifty-four (54) year-old woman with the serious problems

that Fawn Zanette Branham manifested.

XXXIX

Upon information and belief, QCHC contracted to have an actual medical doctor treat at

the facility for four (4) hours per week. That did not happen in August of 2018, for

Fawn Branham never saw a doctor. Furthermore, at this time, the QCHC presence inside the jail

Page 13 of 19

Case 1:19-cv-00230-TAV-SKL Document 1 Filed 08/15/19 Page 13 of 19 PageID #: 13

 was under-staffed, under-qualified, and ill-equipped to take competent care of a prison that was

fifty percent (50%) over its four hundred eight (408) capacity when Fawn died.

In effect on August 20 was a Health Service Agreement that Bradley County had signed

with QCHC in which QCHC promised to secure the transportation of prisoners that its staff

could not treat. After a few days of throwing up blood and exhibiting other dangerous symptoms,

Fawn Branham was clearly such a patient. Her health worsened by the day, right before the eyes

of the nurses, especially Nelson. However, QCHC at no time asked that the County EMS

transport her to a nearby emergency room.

XL

Even after QCHC personnel knew that Fawn had double ischemia and a blood pressure

rate of 84/42, none under its command at the jail summoned for a County EMS transport to a

nearby emergency room. They were under orders to economize. The nurses were poorly trained,

there were an insufficient number of them relative to the jail population, turnover was high, and

morale was low. In that respect, QCHC staffers tracked Bradley County jailers.

XLI

QCHC policies and practices were a moving force behind the suffering and death of

Fawn Branham. The procedures in place were not enforced when Hershel Dover died after

vomiting blood in 2016, and the procedures in place were not followed when

Fawn Branham died after vomiting blood in 2018. Dr. Johnny Bates knew that the jail nurses

lacked the expertise and resources to treat rapidly deteriorating patients, but continued, along

with other QCHC executives, to perpetuate the fiction that most of the diagnosis and treatment of

clearly ill inmates could occur inside the jail facility.

Page 14 of 19

Case 1:19-cv-00230-TAV-SKL Document 1 Filed 08/15/19 Page 14 of 19 PageID #: 14

 XLII

Provider John Doe is also liable for fostering the notion that he could remotely diagnosis

and treat patients with conditions as serious and deteriorating as Fawn Branham had. Under

orders to economize, he assured the staff that Fawn’s vomiting blood for two (2) consecutive

days did not constitute an emergency medical condition.

XLIII

After Fawn's death, QCHC did no investigation of it, and its executives were relieved

when the TBI chose not to interview any of the surviving inmates about what happened. The

QCHC brass, deliberately indifferent to the faulty structures that were bound to fail Fawn, never

punished or even reprimanded one staff person for failing to transport Fawn, as the Health

Services Contract with Bradley County required. As an institution, QCHC thereby ratified the

unconstitutional acts and omissions of its inadequately trained and woefully underpaid nurses at

the Bradley County Jail, all in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as 42

U.S.C 1983.

XLIV

In addition, the QCHC management and owners never reprimanded as many as one (1)

nurse for failing to do anything when Fawn vomited repeatedly, appeared jaundiced, made her

cell uninhabitable through her uncontrolled bowel movements, had double ischemia, and

experienced dramatically falling blood pressure. As long as they could extract money from

Bradley County and render little services in return to the imprisoned, QCHC owners and

managers were satisfied. The human consequences of their business model mattered nothing to

them.

Page 15 of 19

Case 1:19-cv-00230-TAV-SKL Document 1 Filed 08/15/19 Page 15 of 19 PageID #: 15

 XLV

Therefore, QCHC and Dr. Johnny Bates are each liable under the Eighth and Fourteenth

Amendments to the United States Constitution. Their official pattern and practices, along with

their custom of ignoring and deliberately minimizing the serious and known medical conditions

of inmates, produced this tragedy, wherein their nurses inflicted cruel and unusual punishment

upon a helpless and compromised inmate.

XLVI

Because their chosen model of caregiving was itself reckless, and so sketchy and under-

funded that it was bound to produce this tragedy, they are liable for damages under 42 U.S.C.

1983 to the Estate of Fawn Branham. They are also liable under 42 U.S.C. 1986 for failing to

intercede and make the institutional corrections that would have prevented this tragedy from

occurring. They had the power and right to do so, but failed miserably. Upon information and

belief, they and Bradley County are further liable under 42 U.S.C. 1985 for tacitly agreeing to

overlook this grotesque atrocity rather than to investigate the causes of it. There was a tacit

agreement to forgo interviewing witnesses to the last six (6) days of Fawn’s life.

XLVII

It was not unexpected when Fawn's loved ones discovered from Jailer Thomas and the

TBI that all of Fawn's belongings, as inventoried at her intake, had been lost, misplaced,

destroyed, or stolen by the jailers or nurses.

XLVIII

Gabe Thomas consulted repeatedly behind closed doors with nurse Nelson, but took no

steps to intervene and see to it that Fawn received a transport. For a broken arm or leg, Gabe

Page 16 of 19

Case 1:19-cv-00230-TAV-SKL Document 1 Filed 08/15/19 Page 16 of 19 PageID #: 16

 Thomas has done that. Both Gabe Thomas and Carole Edwards failed to supervise their jail staff,

though each knew that Fawn's medical condition was serious and seriously worsening. Sheriff

Watson took no apparent interest.

XLIX

Just as QCHC and Johnny Bates were the moving force behind the atrocious indifference

of the nurses, Bradley County and its penal supervisors were the moving force behind the

atrocious indifference of its jailers. Eric Watson, Gabe Thomas, Carole Edwards, and

Chief Bradford simply refused to supervise the jailers, declare a medical emergency when

declaring one could have made a difference, and generally set the jail on drift during the period

between the election and the new administration. By failing to supervise, train, and discipline

their corrections officers, these Defendants caused the death of Fawn Branham and her intense

suffering that preceded it.

Like their QCHC counterparts, these Defendants were relieved when the TBI chose not to

interview the witnesses to the last days of Fawn Branham's life, which were filled with enough

neglect and indifference to make out a prima facie case for manslaughter. They allowed her

descent into death right before their very eyes. Vomiting blood, a swollen abdomen, jaundiced

eyes, a racing pulse, a blood pressure reading of 84/42, and double ischemia meant nothing to

these Defendants, who failed to call for transport. After Fawn died, they failed to investigate

Fawn's death and reprimanded not a single officer for his or her role in it. By yet another

acquiescence in its custom and practice of prison neglect, these supervisory and the institutional

Defendants ratified the unconstitutional actions of the jailers and nurses, heretofore described in

great detail. Like their medical counterparts, they thereby caused Fawn Branham to be subjected

Page 17 of 19

Case 1:19-cv-00230-TAV-SKL Document 1 Filed 08/15/19 Page 17 of 19 PageID #: 17

 to that cruel and inhuman treatment under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United

States Constitution, to such a degree that they are liable for damages pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 1983.

Each reinforced the others' heedless inaction by failing to intercede to stop this tragedy or to

make the necessary institutional changes that would have prevented this tragedy; thus, they are

all liable under 42 U.S.C. 1986, and liable, too, under 42 U.S.C. 1988 because of their tacit and

unspoken agreement not to investigate or assign official blame for the death of Fawn Branham.

LI

Compounding their violation of Fawn’s Federal civil rights, all supervisory Defendants

failed to coordinate the interactions between jailers and nurses, as no one had fashioned a plan by

which that could be done. No supervisory Defendant observed or required adherence to the

provision of the Health Services Agreement that required that those inmates with significant

illnesses be transported to a local hospital for treatment.

DAMAGES

LII

WHEREFORE, PREMISES CONSIDERED, the Plaintiff sues the institutional

Defendants jointly and severally in the sum of five million dollars ($5,000,000.00) as actual

damages for their violations of 42 U.S.C. 1983, and for their attorney fees pursuant to the

provisions of 42 U.S.C. 1988. The Plaintiff sues the individual Defendants jointly and severally

in the amount of two million dollars ($2,000,000.00) in actual damages as well as for two million

dollars ($2,000,000.00) in punitive damages. Plaintiff further demands a jury to hear the issues

brought forth in this Complaint.

Page 18 of 19

Case 1:19-cv-00230-TAV-SKL Document 1 Filed 08/15/19 Page 18 of 19 PageID #: 18

 LIII

The Plaintiff asks for general relief and all other damages and awards to which the

evidence in this case may prove the Estate of Fawn Branham entitled. The continuing problems

and the plethora of unending tragedy call for judicial oversight, injunctive relief, and a thorough

and painstaking investigation by local, State, and/or Federal authorities. Those inflicting the

cruel and unusual punishment that preceded Fawn Branham’s death must be punished, setting an

example that will prevent such an atrocity in the future.

Respectfully submitted,

LAW OFFICES OF JOHN M. WOLFE, JR.

s/ John M. Wolfe, Jr.

JOHN M. WOLFE, JR. | BPR No. 010319
Counsel for Plaintiff
707 Georgia Avenue, Suite 302
Chattanooga, TN 37402
423.266.8400 | Phone
423.265.8055 | Fax
johnmwolfejr@comcast.net

Page 19 of 19

Case 1:19-cv-00230-TAV-SKL Document 1 Filed 08/15/19 Page 19 of 19 PageID #: 19