Southern Regional Jail in Beaver in Raleigh County
BECKLEY – A former Southern Regional Jail nurse says she was forced out of her job after repeatedly warning supervisors inmates were not receiving proper medical care.
Erica Wade filed her complaint March 24 in Raleigh Circuit Court against Wexford Health Services Inc. and Rebekah Danielle Fallin, Greg Lester, Melissa Jeffries and Mary Stone, all agents of Wexford.
In addition to saying she sometimes was the lone provider for about 400 SRJ inmates, Wade also claims workplace favoritism and exclusion undermined patient safety.
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Under those conditions, Wade says required sick call evaluations and detox monitoring were “not consistently being completed,” creating what she describes as ongoing risks to inmate health and safety.
Wade says she raised these concerns on multiple occasions with Wexford supervisors, including Fallin and Jeffries, and regional leadership, including Stone and Lester. She also says she documented instances in which inmates allegedly were not evaluated when needed and follow-up monitoring was inconsistent due to chronic understaffing and poor coordination.
In addition, Wade claims internal communication and scheduling practices were distorted by favoritism tied to personal and spousal relationships involving supervisory personnel.
Wade says certain employees with those connections were included in group messaging and informal coordination channels that provided real-time access to scheduling information and open shifts, while she was excluded from those threads.
Wade claims she frequently learned about available shifts only after they had been claimed by others and that her exclusion from those communications both reduced her work opportunities and hampered her ability to plan and deliver adequate care.
After she filed and later supplemented an Equal Employment Opportunity complaint in November 2025, Wade says the isolation worsened as staff allegedly cut off conversations when she entered rooms and left her out of discussions about staffing and patient care.
Wade says she submitted written reports and complaints to Stone and Lester in January 2026 detailing inadequate staffing, missed sick calls and detox checks as well as delays in inmate care as well as her concerns about systemic staffing problems and failures to complete required medical tasks.
Lester responded that the information was “a lot to take in,” according to the complaint.
Within days of that last communication, Wade says she was taken off the schedule. She says she received an email January 30 from Lester informing her she would not be scheduled for any further shifts due to alleged attendance issues and that she would receive no additional hours.
After she sought clarification, she says Wexford did not restore her to the schedule and did not offer other work. On February 6, she says she received written notice she was banned from the facility and could not return.
Wade’s complaint also claims administrators Helen Perkins and Patricia Lilly had been “threatened, coerced, or forced” to falsify accreditation and training documents related to National Commission on Correctional Health Care standards. She says she also believes inmate records were altered by Wexford personnel.
Also, Wade alleges the defendants provided misleading information to unemployment authorities claiming she voluntarily resigned the position and accusing her of misconduct while omitting her documented complaints and the timing of her removal from the schedule.
Wade accuses the defendants of wrongful termination, retaliation in violation of the West Virginia Human Rights Act, retaliation in violation of the West Virginia Patient Safety Act and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
She seeks back pay, front pay or reinstatement, compensatory damages for emotional distress and reputational harm, statutory damages, liquidated damages, punitive damages, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
Wade is being represented by Stephen P. New and Morgan E. Wilkes of Stephen New & Associates in Beckley. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Andrew Dimlich.
Raleigh Circuit Court case number 26-C-110
