Lawsuit: Charlotte inmates did more to help man who died than detention officer
Yet another lawsuit filed against Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden over a jail death alleges that an inmate at uptown’s jail died from drug toxicity.
That happened after jail staff denied 42-year-old Renny Mobley the medicine he needed in March 2024, according to the lawsuit filed by Mobley’s mother, and instead “repeatedly segregated him or locked him in solitary confinement” for hours.
His mother repeatedly but unsuccessfully called the jail in an attempt to intervene and get him his medication for schizoaffective disorder and hyperthyroidism, according to the lawsuit. He spent months acting manic, it said.
In total, he missed 412 doses of Invega, the antipsychotic he was prescribed, it said.
When Mobley could not walk on his own one day, other inmates carried him back to his cell, the lawsuit said. They worried that he was not OK, it said.
A detention officer was less concerned, according to the lawsuit, and told Mobley to “get away from my podium” when he approached him and said he did not feel well.
The lawsuit alleges that the same detention officer did not check on inmates later as he made his rounds.
The lawsuit said that inmates found Mobley in his cell and shouted for help for him as the detention officer handed out food trays, and the detention officer responded, “Hold on, I have to get these trays out.”
He argued with inmates but rendered no aid when he got to Mobley, it said.
When Mobley was eventually taken to the hospital, it was found that “prolonged deprivation of sufficient oxygen from severely depressed respiration permanently and irreparably damaged (his) brain,” the lawsuit said.
An autopsy confirmed that he died from fentanyl and methamphetamine toxicity, it said.
McFadden testifies in Raleigh
On Monday, McFadden tesitified to lawmakers in Raleigh on jail deaths generally, as well as other topics.
“People die every day across America,” the sheriff said at one point, echoing a line he has often used when questioned about jail deaths. “People die in hospitals across America where there are millions of dollars of technology, millions of dollars spent on salaries and education to equip the best doctors, sometimes, in the world, at a facility. And people still die.”
“Are you saying a hospital and a jail are comparable?” an incredulous state Rep. Reece Pyrtle asked.
“No, sir,” McFadden answered before adding that people die in the United States of prostate cancer, heart attacks and “several diseases.”
He could not say what he had done to improve jail safety because of a pending State Bureau of Investigation probe, he claimed.
McFadden has been under intense and growing scrutiny at home, too. For more than a year, high-ranking staffers have resigned, often in public fashion, and accused him of bullying them and abusing his office’s authority.
Three Democrats are running against him in a March primary race. No Republican filed to run.
Ryan Oehrli covers criminal justice in the Charlotte region for The Charlotte Observer. His work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The Observer maintains full editorial control of its journalism.