Nurse gives Benadryl to inmate having reaction, then gets arrested, GA suit says
A nurse provided Benadryl to an inmate having an allergic reaction, which she was allowed to do, then she was wrongfully arrested and charged with a felony, according to a Georgia lawsuit.
The Clayton County Jail nurse is now suing the investigator accused of taking out the arrest affidavits against her, according to the federal lawsuit provided by her attorney, Mark Begnaud.
McClatchy News reached out to the Clayton County Sheriff's Office for comment on the deputy named in the lawsuit but did not immediately receive a response May 13.
'The medication (the nurse) provided to the jailed individual was Benadryl, an over-the-counter medication that jail nurses everywhere, including at the Clayton County Jail, are authorized to give without a doctor's orders,' the woman's attorney wrote in the May 12 filing.
The lawsuit says she didn't do anything wrong, and her arrest 'was based on a falsehood.'
Providing Benadryl
In May 2023, a corrections officer at the jail was arrested in connection with an attack that had recently occurred there, and the nurse wasn't supposed to have contact with him because they were friends, according to the lawsuit.
But the officer began having an allergic reaction, so the nurse involved in the lawsuit gave another nurse Benadryl, which the nurses were authorized to give even without doctor's orders, per protocol with their employer, the filing says.
The second nurse gave the officer the Benadryl herself, and when asked about it, told the investigator that she had gotten it from the first nurse, according to the lawsuit.
The investigator then went after the first nurse but not the second, the lawsuit says.
The woman left work, then at about 2 a.m., a jail lieutenant called her and 'asked her to come to the sheriff's office for questioning,' according to the filing.
The single mom said she couldn't leave her 4-year-old son but would come in the next morning, the lawsuit says.
'Of course, anybody with five minutes of law enforcement or legal training knows that the police cannot force a person who is not under arrest to voluntarily submit to an interrogation — and arrest them if they decline,' according to the lawsuit.
Arrest and legal fallout
Shortly after, the investigator took out two affidavits against her, one a felony charge of furnishing prohibited items to inmates and the other a misdemeanor charge of obstructing an officer.
According to the first affidavit, ''The said accused, while working as a contract nurse … committed the offense of furnishing prohibited items to inmates when she was seen via CCTV giving an inmate medication without a doctor's orders,'' the lawsuit says.
The nurse didn't give the inmate the Benadryl herself, so the assertion that she was seen on video doing so was false, the suit says. And even so, she was allowed to give Benadryl, according to the filing.
The second arrest affidavit said she 'refused to cooperate with the investigation' on the grounds that she did not go in for an interview in the middle of the night, which she was not legally bound to do, the complaint says.
She was arrested the next day on May 27, 2023, and the charges were dropped 10 months later, the lawsuit says.
The woman's attorney says the investigator did not have probable cause and 'relied on misstatements and omissions necessary to support the warrant,' violating her constitutional rights.
The lawsuit accuses the investigator of malicious prosecution.
The woman's 'arrest was covered in the news, and the criminal prosecution cast a shadow over her life,' causing distress and humiliation, according to the filing.
She's seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
Clayton County is part of the Atlanta metro area.
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