Murphy – A hearing scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 7, is the next step in the process of settling a lawsuit filed by the child of a man who died in the Cherokee County Detention Center.
Both assistant county manager Maria Hass and county attorney Darryl Brown said the court is expected to give final approval to the settlement paid by the county’s insurer to the 4-year-old daughter of Joshua Shane Long. A source close to the situation said the estimated amount of the settlement is $1.8 million.
Brown said he could not comment further prior to the hearing due to the fact that a minor was involved. The county is represented by Charlotte attorney Sean F. Perrin.
Long’s family filed a lawsuit against the county’s insurer and Sheriff Derrick Palmer in 2020. In September, both parties agreed to settle the lawsuit, with a notice of settlement being filed on Sept. 20.
The suit alleged that deputies did not follow the standard operating procedure requiring medical evaluations of at-risk inmates, and that they did not notify medical personnel of the possibility of drugs in Long’s bloodstream. Another allegation was that someone tampered with jail records of the incident. However, federal authorities later determined that no criminal acts were committed by local law enforcement.
Long – a native of Blairsville, Ga., – was found unresponsive in his cell on the night of July 11, and died after being flown to Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga, Tenn. A deputy saw Long consume something from an Altoids mint box prior to being arrested, and he exhibited general signs of impairment as he was being booked. Long was arrested near the Tennessee line after he was reported to be screaming and acting erratically.
Despite Long being clearly in distress, a magistrate did not sign a rules order waiving Long’s bond until he received authorization from the district attorney’s office. The bond issue delayed Long’s arrival at the hospital by 35-40 minutes.
Autopsy results released in 2019 showed that Long died from methamphetamine toxicity, with the amount of meth in his blood being listed as “extremely high.”