Two jail employees indicted in inmate's death

Two ex-employees of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office are under indictment for the death of an inmate who was behind bars for a misdemeanor marijuana charge.  WSB's Veronica Waters reports they're accused of ignoring the 30-year-old victim, who died an agonizingly painful death from kidney failure.

"It's the most troubling case I've ever had to deal with, dealing with the mistreatment of an inmate," Douglas County District Attorney David McDade tells WSB. 

McDade says in 2009, Rodney Earl Graham was put behind bars for a probation violation on a misdemeanor marijuana possession count.  During that time, Graham told staffers that he had a crucial medical condition.  Graham's family even hand-delivered medical records from his doctor to the county jail, says the DA, and the man's father sent a "poignant" e-mail to jail staffers, explaining that the man could die without proper medical treatment for kidney disease.  But instead of getting treatment, Graham was thrown into isolation.  McDade says the explanation he was given was that Graham appeared to have been showing signs of detoxing from drugs.

"For four days, he pitifully laid in that jail cell," McDade said.  "At times, you could see he's obviously begging for help.  He's raising his hands to the camera.  He's trying desperately to get attention, and jail staff simply did not adequately deal with him.  And he died." 

Video shows Graham, in pain, too weak to stand, sometimes vomiting, but no outside help was sought until he was found unresponsive in his medical isolation cell November 4. 

"Every expert that's looked at the evidence in this case dealing with this medical condition have told me that it's ummistakable to the trained eye and to laymen that he was suffering from a horrible kidney disorder," says McDade. 

Nurse Stephanie Evans and EMT Kelli Marie Brown are indicted on two counts of reckless conduct.  As jail staffers, they were part of the medical team responsible for providing inmates treatment, and they failed to do so, according to the indictment.

McDade says the grand jury convenes again next month, and since their probe continues, more indictments could be ahead.