Hampton Roads Regional Jail, its former medical provider and the state have agreed to pay nearly $3 million to the family of a 24-year-old inmate who died at the regional jail on August 19, 2015, which sparked outrage throughout the nation.
As per the additional documents released by the U.S. District Court in Norfolk, the former medical provider will have to pay $1.8 million of the proposed $3 million settlement, another $875,000 will be paid by the Regional Jail, and $325,000 will be paid by the state. If the settlement gets approved by the court, plaintiff attorneys will get $1 million. An additional amount of $58,690.77 will go to plaintiff attorneys to compensate them for the costs incurred during the case preparation. Of that, $27,512.50 will go to experts.
The remaining $1.94 million will be divided among the surviving members of the victim's family after a judge decides upon the settlement in a hearing. His parents and seven half-siblings have not reached on a common agreement yet.
The victim was arrested for stealing snacks worth $5 from a Portsmouth convenience store, and four months later, he succumbed to death in the regional jail. His family claimed in the lawsuit filed the following year that he suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, was beaten, starved, ill-treated, and ultimately left to die in his cell. According to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, probable cardiac arrhythmia accompanying wasting syndrome of unknown etiology was the reason for Mitchell's death.
In a wrongful death lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Carl J. Barbier awarded $4.2 million to the widow and children of a longshoreman. The incident took place on June 16, 2015, when the victim fell from 50 feet after stepping through a hole in a decommissioned oil platform. A two-day bench trial was conducted in June 2018, where a 13-page finding of fact and conclusions helped the jury to decide about the lawsuit.
