Opinion ID: 795014
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Post-Intake Monitoring

Text: 11 Jailers Chris Porter and Lacy Ree worked the afternoon shift that day, from 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., with McAllister supervising. When Grayson entered Cell 7, Porter did not notice anything that caused him concern. 12 Sharum returned to the jail at 4:30 p.m. to take Grayson's blood. Again, at that time, Sharum observed that Grayson was not acting abnormally and Sharum did not observe evidence that Grayson was hallucinating. Sharum read Grayson his rights on implied consent for drug testing, and Grayson stated that he did not understand, would not submit to testing, and did not want to sign anything. McAllister accompanied Sharum to witness the reading of the implied consent form and noticed that Grayson was acting like he did not want to be disturbed, a not-uncommon reaction to the implied consent form, but nothing about the event signaled that Grayson needed to go to the hospital. 13 Porter was stationed at a desk located in a hallway common to all cells, approximately fifteen to twenty feet from Cell 7. Porter checked on all men in the jail at 3:05 p.m. and at 4:00 p.m. and noticed nothing unusual about Grayson. Until 5:00 p.m., Grayson was quiet and behaved normally. 14 However, at 5:00 p.m., Grayson's behavior changed. He began to scream, a behavior Porter characterized as not unusual for intoxicated inmates. Porter notified McAllister, who responded to Cell 7. McAllister saw Grayson sitting on the floor with his shirt off, screaming and rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands. McAllister called Grayson by his first name. Grayson stopped and agreed to relax and calm down. McAllister left Cell 7 and instructed Porter to put Grayson on a fifteen-minute watch. McAllister went to the front of the jail and telephoned the jail administrator to let him know that there was an inmate screaming and rubbing his eyes. The administrator told McAllister to keep an eye on the inmate, which McAllister considered already accomplished by the fifteen-minute watch. 15 At 5:15 p.m., Porter noted that Grayson had taken off his clothes and was still screaming. At 5:23 p.m., Grayson was standing in Cell 7 and sweating. At 5:30 p.m., Porter noticed a small pool of blood on the floor. Grayson was bent over with his back to the door, so Porter contacted McAllister. 16 Sharum and Van Buren Police Officer Griffin came to the jail at the jailers' request at 5:36 p.m. When Sharum arrived, Grayson was naked and covered in blood and sweat. Sharum, Griffin, Porter, and McAllister entered Cell 7 together and discovered that Grayson had succeeded in mutilating himself and was attempting to harm himself further. McAllister pulled Grayson from Cell 7 into the hallway in a face-down position and tried to restrain Grayson by lying across the back of Grayson's knees. While on top of Grayson, McAllister radioed Ree to summon an ambulance, the Sheriff, and the jail administrator. Porter immediately tried to grab Grayson's hand to prevent him from harming himself further. A prolonged struggle ensued, in which Sharum's arm was broken, and his shoulder dislocated. 17 According to the jail logs, an ambulance was called at 5:52 p.m., sheriff's deputies arrived at 5:58 p.m., and the ambulance had arrived and medical technicians were treating Grayson by 6:00 p.m. At 6:09 p.m., Grayson had stopped breathing and at 6:22 p.m., he was transported out of the jail and to the Crawford County Emergency Room. Grayson died of excited delirium as a result of acute methamphetamine intoxication and physical struggle, with idiopathic cardiomyopathy as a contributing condition.