Suit: Woman with MS dies walking from jail after release

CHARLESTON – A Boone County woman says jail staffers are responsible for the death of her sister, who had multiple sclerosis, after they abandoned her along a rural roadside in extreme heat.

Anita Perdue, as administratrix of the estate of April Holstein, filed her complaint June 17 in Kanawha Circuit Court against the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Southwestern Regional Jail Superintendent Toby Allen, unidentified correctional officers and Wexford Health Sources Inc.

An attorney for the estate called the case “tragic.”

“Our Regional Jail Authority and third-party medical provider Wexford Health miserably failed April Holstein,” L. Dante diTrapano told The West Virginia Record. “If anyone in charge had even a modicum of care for people that were in their care, April would be alive today.”

According to the complaint, Holstein had a history of multiple sclerosis and significant physical and vision impairments known to jail staff for months before her death. Wexford, who provides health care services for the state’s jail system, had records from as early as November 2022 documenting Holstein’s MS diagnosis as well as chronic lower extremity pain and difficulty walking.

During a 2024 incarceration, Holstein reported she could “barely see,” produced a Snellen eye exam score as poor as 10/200 in one eye and asked for special shoes to help her walk. But the complaint says a jail doctor denied her request for tennis shoes, saying MS did not qualify for that accommodation under jail policy.

The complaint says Holstein arrived at Boone Memorial Hospital on March 24, 2024, with an altered mental status and was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection and cerebral atrophy. The next day, she was hospitalized at CAMC General Hospital, where a CT scan again showed brain atrophy and an attending physician described her as “medically fragile,” according to the complaint.

On March 26, she was booked into Southwestern Regional Jail in Logan County, where she repeatedly sought pain medication for leg and joint pain and requested eye care and mobility accommodations from Wexford staff, the complaint states.

On June 21, 2024, Holstein was released from the jail. Jail staff told her family she would be released at 5 p.m., and relatives arranged for a ride between 5 and 6 p.m. But Holstein was released between 1 and 2 p.m. The complaint says she was told to start walking away from the jail if her ride wasn’t there. It was between 85 and 90 degrees that afternoon, according to the complaint.

Despite staffers knowing of Holstein’s MS-related mobility and vision problems, Perdue says they failed to secure safe transportation upon release. The jail is located in a remote location on Gaston Caperton Drive about 1.5 miles off of U.S. 119.

When a family friend arrived at the jail around 5 p.m., Holstein was no longer at the facility. The next day, another inmate walking from the jail discovered Holstein’s body about a quarter-mile from the release point lying face-down over a guardrail in a ditch on jail property, according to the complaint.

“Any inmate who is lawfully released (e.g., discharged, released to parole supervision, court ordered released, etc.) from an applicable Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) facility, and who does not have other arrangements for transportation from the facility, will be provided transportation,” the complaint states, quoting WVDCR policy directive 457.09.

The state medical examiner was unable to determine the precise cause and manner of Holstein’s death but contends she suffered a medical emergency, extreme mental anguish and additional physical pain after being forced to walk in the heat.

The complaint says Boone Circuit Judge Stacy Nowicki‑Eldridge messaged the family to express condolences and said she had been told jail staff allowed Holstein to call for a ride and then instructed her to start walking. The judge allegedly told the family that, had she known Holstein would be told to walk, she would have made other arrangements, according to the complaint.

Perdue accuses the WVDCR defendants of deliberate indifference, negligence as well as failure to train and supervise. She also accuses Wexford of medical negligence and negligent training and supervision.

She seeks compensatory damages for Holstein’s pain and suffering, funeral expenses, medical expenses, lost income and services as well as sorrow and mental anguish of surviving family members. She also seeks punitive damages from the individual defendants, pre- and post-judgment interests, court costs, attorney fees and other relief.

Perdue is being represented by L. Dante diTrapano, Amanda J. Davis and Charles F. Bellomy of Calwell Luce diTrapano in Charleston and by W. Jesse Forbes, Jennifer N. Taylor and Michael D. Heidenreich of Forbes Law Offices in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Dave Hardy.

Kanawha Circuit Court case number 26-C-739