The attorney for a paralyzed detainee in the troubled St. Louis City Justice Center found him lying in his own feces yesterday, denied access to a toilet and the use of both adult diapers and toilet paper, she says. The attorney, Susan McGraugh, snapped a photo of the troubling scene she encountered.
The photo is of Lamarr Pearson, a 35-year-old who was arrested Friday on first-degree assault charges. Pearson has been paralyzed for several years and does not have control over his bowels, McGraugh says. He soiled himself in a holdover cell at the jail, a transitional area for detainees after they have been arrested but before they have been fully processed into the jail.
McGraugh says her client was not only denied access to a shower to clean himself, but no one helped him back into his chair. He is incapable of getting himself back into his wheelchair, McGraugh says. Pearson told her he’d been lying in such a condition for two to three days.
The photo of Pearson is the latest example of visual evidence showing the bleak conditions in the city jail that activists and attorneys, not to mention jail detainees, say are commonplace. In January, an attorney shared a photo of detainee named Kevin O'Shaughnessy, from whose stomach protruded an untreated hernia that had swelled to the size of a cantaloupe. As a result of that photo going public, the jail banned attorneys from bringing phones into the facility. Also, last summer, lawyers with ArchCity defenders released a plethora of videos showing what attorneys said is the wanton use of pepper spray by correctional staff. The jail was forced to turn over those videos as part of an ongoing civil lawsuit in federal court.
McGraugh's fellow attorney at Saint Louis University School of Law, Brendan Roediger, tells the RFT that he thinks Pearson has grounds to file a civil suit against the jail, but adds, "The most important thing right now is for him to be OK."
Pearson told McGraugh he believes he may have an open wound caused by a bedsore on one of his buttocks. He worries that this combined with his soiled state may lead to a staph infection.
When Pearson asked for something to wipe himself off with, a deputy told him to use the plastic wrap that a sandwich in Pearson's vicinity had been wrapped in. "Sometimes we have to improvise," McGraugh says her client was told.
Pearson had a bond hearing yesterday in front of Judge Catherine Dierker. No jail staff or deputy would escort him to the hearing, so he appeared via video. McGraugh says she showed both Dierker and the prosecutor the photo of Pearson, yet Judge Dierker ordered Pearson to remain in custody.
Pearson is accused of shooting a man on Friday in the Gate District. A witness said that she heard Pearson and the victim arguing followed by gunshots and saw Pearson in his wheelchair “advancing” toward the man he wounded. The extent of the victim’s injuries is unknown, though they weren’t fatal.
Reached for comment, Department of Public Safety spokesman Monte Chambers tells the RFT that jail staff perform regular checks on all detainees, “with particular attention to those undergoing detoxification from prior drug addictions.”
“Since Detainee Pearson was admitted to the City Justice Center, he has undergone medical examinations and has been equipped with the necessary medical support for his condition,” Chambers adds.
Pearson has two convictions for felony unlawful use of a weapon, in 2010 and 2011. He’s had other convictions since then, including for property damage and a federal charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
He is due back in court for a second bond hearing Monday.
McGraugh says that she went back to check on Pearson Tuesday morning and, no longer in a holdover cell, he'd been moved to a medical unit at the jail.
"I spoke with one of the sheriff supervisors who informed me that the jail has been using these holdover cells as sleeper cells because they are so crowded, which is not what the cells are for," she says.
McGraugh says that she’s aware of a detainee currently in the jail who has been denied medication for seizure and another who, after attempting suicide in the jail, was unable to access medication for his mental health issues.
"We have had judges sign orders [telling the] Justice Center to provide healthcare to our clients," McGraugh says. "Those orders have been routinely ignored."
In the case of O'Shaughnessy, he tried to commit suicide by cop in April 2023, only to end up in the city jail with the cantaloupe-sized hernia. His sister, mother, and lawyer argued at a January hearing he ought to be let out of jail awaiting trial. They cited his medical neglect and untreated mental health issues.
Judge Katherine Fowler said she wasn’t going to let a man accused of shooting at police out on bond. But she did order him transferred to BJC Hospital, where he was to be evaluated as to whether he was fit to remain at the City Justice Center. Fowler mentioned both St. Louis County Jail and the jail in St. Charles as possible alternatives where O'Shaughnessy could await his date in court.
Three months later, jail records show O'Shaughnessy still locked up in the city jail as of yesterday.
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