Lawsuit filed against OC Jail and Health Care Provider

A $5 million lawsuit has been filed against the Oconee County Detention Center and Southern Health Partners, the health care provider for the jail. The suit, filed Friday in Walhalla, alleges negligence and seeks actual damages from the jail’s health care contractor, along with punitive damages to be set by an Oconee County Common Pleas jury. The plaintiff is Erica Smalley, personal representative of the estate of Ernest Lee Smalley, Jr. He was the inmate who died in October of 2015. According to the lawsuit, Smalley was arrested on a bench warrant, but was suffering from an alcohol addiction and “the defendants did not give him the proper care and treatment for that illness.”