FRANKFORT, Ky. (Legal Newsline) – Prison officers can’t get out of a lawsuit that blames them for the death of an inmate who ingested fentanyl that was smuggled in.
The Kentucky Court of Appeals made that decision on April 23 in a lawsuit over the 2017 death of Ryan Smallwood of acute fentanyl toxicity. Kloud Jones, the fellow inmate who passed the drug on to Smallwood, pleaded guilty to criminal charges in 2018 and received 300 more months in prison.
The jailer, Eric Jones, and deputy jailers of Montgomery County Regional Jail were appealing an order that refused to grant their motion for summary judgment. The Court of Appeals, though, affirmed.