Attorney wants Callaway County to pay over undisclosed jail documents

An attorney for the family suing Callaway County over a man’s suicide in jail claims the city should have to pay for documents just now disclosed.

Anthony Laramore, a St. Louis-based attorney representing the family of Cody Ousley, wants a judge to sanction the county for jail protocol documents they recently discovered. Ousley’s family sued Callaway County and dozens of sheriff’s office employees in 2016, two years after Cody hanged himself in jail.

Laramore filed a motion to sanction the county on Wednesday. He said ongoing work in a federal lawsuit against Callaway County turned up a document titled “Jail Protocols,” which a captain confirmed during an April 3 deposition that jail staff has used since 2012. Laramore said the protocols show how inmates with suicidal tendencies should be dealt with, and include information crucial to their case.

Laramore requested policies, like the ones produced, in 2016, and accused the sheriff’s office of concealing the documents not only from them, but from their own attorneys.

“This case has been pending for more than three years, and but for counsel for Plaintiffs prosecution of an entirely separate claim from the case at bar, Defendants would have been successful in their concealment of this important evidence,” Laramore wrote.

Ousley’s attorney asked Judge Jon Beetem to make the county pay for their attorneys fees and to pay the cost of re-deposing nine defendants in the case, including Sheriff Clay Chism.

Attorneys for Callaway County did not return a message seeking comment.

Ousley’s family claim jail employees did not properly monitor him after he returned from University Hospital from an unsuccessful suicide attempt days prior to his death. Dr. Tahir Rahman diagnosed Ousley with antisocial depression disorder, and urged deputies not to send him back to the hospital for inpatient treatment “as this will only serve to reinforce negative, manipulative behavior.”

Rahman is also being sued in this case.

The policies at question show that correctional staff at the Callaway County Jail “should not make a decision to remove a person from suicide watch.” Only the practicioner or qualified health professionals are allowed to do so, according to the policy.