Family disputes official account of Nevada inmate's death, alleging excessive force and a cover-up

Washington Post

6 hours ago

LAS VEGAS — The family of a Nevada inmate who died in custody after he was pepper-sprayed, shackled and restrained is disputing the official account of his death in a coroner's report while also accusing prison staff of excessive force and destroying video evidence.
A lawsuit filed this week in Clark County District Court says Patrick Odale wasn't acting erratically and 'growling' at officers, as the coroner's report states, but was suffering from an asthma attack when he approached prison guards in December 2023 at Southern Desert Correctional Center, a mostly medium-security facility near Las Vegas.
Instead of helping Odale, the lawsuit alleges, officers pepper-sprayed and beat him and restrained him with his face to the ground. The 39-year-old was pronounced dead soon after.
The lawsuit alleges the Nevada Department of Corrections and its director, the prison warden, correctional officers and other prison staff engaged in a broad conspiracy that it says sought to cover up the extent of Odale's injuries and the officers' use of force.
'Patrick endured a prolonged and painful death,' the lawsuit says.
It also names the medical examiner who performed Odale's autopsy and authored the coroner's report, saying the report downplayed Odale's injuries while overstating the role that drugs found in his system played in his death, which was ruled a homicide by the Clark County coroner's office.
The county said it doesn't comment on pending litigation. The Associated Press sent emailed requests for comment Wednesday to the state Department of Corrections and its director, James Dzurenda.
The coroner's report, which was finalized in August 2024, said Odale died of ' positional and mechanical asphyxia in the setting of law enforcement restraint.' But it also said he had low levels of methamphetamine and an animal sedative in his system, and that the drugs were a 'major contributor' in his death.
The lawsuit raises questions about the medical examiner's decision to list the drugs as contributing to his death, but not Odale's other injuries.
Autopsy photos included in the lawsuit show purple bruises across Odale's shoulders and upper back, as well as on his wrists, arms and lips. The coroner's report describes the injuries as 'minor blunt force trauma,' while the lawsuit says they were 'critical injuries.'
Odale, a father of two, was sentenced in early 2023 to up to two years in prison for possessing a stolen credit card and attempting to carry a concealed weapon, court records show. He died weeks before he was set to be released from custody.
'We were counting down the days. Instead of welcoming him home, we mourned his death and had no chance to say goodbye,' his 15-year-old daughter said in a statement provided by Return Strong, a group advocating for people who are incarcerated.
According to the coroner's report, officers said Odale was 'erratic and growling' at them on the night of his death, leading them to pepper-spray him and put him in a storage room with yard tools for several minutes until he began 'thrashing the room.' Then officers pulled him to the ground, restrained him and took him to the prison infirmary, the report says.
But the lawsuit claims that other inmates who witnessed the incident reported hearing Odale begging for medical staff and saying he couldn't breathe. The inmates, according to the lawsuit, also reported seeing guards smash Odale's head into a steel door frame after pulling him out of the storage room.
Some of the altercation was captured on security video, the coroner's report shows, but it also indicates that there may be a gap in the footage.
The footage, as described by the autopsy report, shows Odale groaning as he is taken to the infirmary. He is face-down with his hands shackled behind his back. Then, the autopsy says, 'after a gap, video coverage resumes,' showing prison staff performing CPR on an unresponsive Odale.
'When the video resumes, the inmate is face-up with hands shackled anteriorly,' the medical examiner wrote, meaning that his hands were no longer shackled behind him but were in front of his body.
The state Department of Corrections has not released any of the video to Odale's family or the law firm representing them, said James Urrutia, their lawyer.
Urrutia is also representing the family of another inmate, Christian Walker, who died after he was beaten by guards at High Desert State Prison near Las Vegas. Their ongoing lawsuit disputes the coroner's report in that case and accuses prison staff of trying to cover up the death.
Walker's face was swollen and smeared with blood when he died in custody in April 2023, according to an unredacted copy of his autopsy obtained by the AP. He also suffered head trauma and other injuries to his torso, neck and extremities.
The medical examiner in Walker's case concluded it was a natural death caused by heart problems.