Kelly Green II: $7.4M Health Settlement at Lane County Jail

The family of Kelly Conrad Green II reached a $7.4 million wrongful death settlement with Corizon Health and Lane County in 2015, after the 28-year-old Eugene man suffered a broken neck at the Lane County Jail that medical staff dismissed as faking, leaving him a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic until his death ten months later.¹

Who Kelly Conrad Green II Was

Green had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. In 2012, he was hospitalized after telling others he planned to kill himself by breaking his own neck.¹ On February 11, 2013, he was booked into the Lane County Jail on a warrant. His booking paperwork flagged him as paranoid schizophrenic and potentially suicidal.

What Happened at the Jail

On the morning of February 13, 2013, during his arraignment, Green rammed his head into a cinder block wall. The impact opened a significant head laceration, and he could not move afterward.

Jail medical personnel, including physician’s assistant Kristin White, registered nurse Sharon Epperson, and licensed practical nurse Jona Bougard, concluded Green was faking paralysis. Instead of using a cervical collar and backboard, deputies tied his limp body into a wheelchair with his own sweatshirt. While his head wound was being sutured, Green lost bowel control, a classic sign of spinal cord injury. Staff did not document it.¹

He was then moved to a segregation cell, where he lay naked, soiled, and motionless for hours while staff kept insisting he was faking. An ambulance was not called until 4:33 p.m., about six hours after the injury.² Surgery at the hospital revealed a burst fracture of his C-4 vertebra. Green left the hospital a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic and died ten months later from complications of that dependence.³

The Federal Lawsuit

Green’s estate, through court-appointed personal representative Derek Johnson, sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon as Johnson v. Corizon Health, Inc., case number 6:13-CV-1855-TC. The complaint named Corizon Health and Lane County, originally sought $30 million, and alleged deliberate indifference and gross negligence, including that Corizon staff intentionally delayed hospital-level care to save money.¹⁴

Discovery produced evidence that medical records had been “removed and added after the fact,” according to the federal court. A Corizon internal review had initially called physician’s assistant Kristin White’s performance “reckless,” though a Corizon official later walked that back in a deposition.¹

On April 16, 2015, Magistrate Judge Thomas M. Coffin denied the defendants’ motion for summary judgment, finding “sufficient evidence to create a jury issue on gross negligence and deliberate indifference.”⁵ With trial looming, the parties settled.

How the $7.4 Million Breaks Down

In July 2015, Corizon Health agreed to pay $7 million. Lane County separately agreed to pay $500,000, reduced by $100,000 under an arrangement in which the county dismissed a cross-claim it had filed against Corizon. The total recovery was $7.4 million, reported at the time as one of the largest wrongful death settlements Corizon had paid.¹⁶

What Changed at the Lane County Jail

Lane County’s contract with Corizon, which began in 2010, expired in 2015 and was not renewed. In later documents, the county stated that “the services received from Corizon were not satisfactory, resulting in lawsuits and large additional costs to the County.” California Forensic Medical Group began providing jail health services on July 1, 2015, and later became part of WellPath, LLC. Under the new contract, the Sheriff’s Office expanded mental health programming inside the jail, including cognitive and behavioral skills programs and medication-assisted treatment.⁷

1
Prison Legal News. Mentally Ill Oregon Prisoner’s Wrongful Death Suit Settles
2
The Oregonian. Lane County Jail’s Medical Provider Settles Lawsuit
3
Street Roots. Profits and Preventable Deaths in Oregon Jails
4
Civic Research Institute. Johnson v. Corizon Health, Inc.
5
Civic Research Institute. Corizon Settles on Inmate Death in Oregon
6
Shadowproof. Corizon Health Services Breaks Second Death Settlement Record
7
Lane County. Lane County Board of Commissioners Memorandum