A defense attorney who last week went public with a photo of a client lying in his filth in the St. Louis city jail says the Sheriff's Office barred her from meeting with other clients yesterday.
"They wouldn't let me back to my clients," Susan McGraugh tells the RFT. "It was total retaliation."
She said that she asked a sheriff's deputy directly, "Is this about me?"
She says she was told, "Yes."
It took a judge’s order for McGraugh to gain access to her clients.
McGraugh, who directs the Criminal Defense Clinic at the Saint Louis University School of Law, had hearings for four clients yesterday, all of whom were locked up. She would typically meet them in a holding area where detainees with court dates wait before their time in front of a judge. That area is supervised by sheriff’s employees.
But when McGraugh tried to access the area, she was told that only contract attorneys were allowed. She explained she was, in fact, a contract attorney. She says it quickly became clear that her denial of access had everything to do with the photo she shared with the media.
That photo, taken last Monday, showed Lamarr Pearson, a paralyzed 35-year-old who'd been arrested on assault charges, lying on the floor in his own feces. He told McGraugh he'd been like that for two or three days and had been told to clean himself with a swath of plastic that had been wrapped around a sandwich.
She made the photo public to raise alarm about the situation at the City Justice Center, which has been a source of concern among local defense attorneys. At one point, previous complaints about one detainee’s untreated medical condition, documented in a photo and made public by a different attorney, led to a ban on attorneys bringing phones into the jail, although lawyers say they were given an exception if they filled out a form.
McGraugh’s photo last week was covered by the RFT and other outlets. Yet despite that attention, McGraugh says Pearson is still not getting medication, including painkillers and blood thinners that he requires to prevent blood clots caused by his paralysis.
McGraugh says she had a back-and-forth at one point yesterday with Sheriff Vernon Betts about her not getting access to the area of the jail his office controls. She says Betts criticized her for speaking to the media about Pearson and went on to assert he hadn't spoken to the media himself. McGraugh then pointed out his having been quoted on the previous night's KMOV broadcast.
Eventually, 22nd Circuit Court President Judge Elizabeth Hogan issued an order stating that McGraugh be allowed "immediate access to her clients in the usual and customary manner." Betts was CC'ed on the order.
McGraugh says she did meet with her clients yesterday, but only for half as long as she usually would.
In a separate order, Judge Catherine Dierker ordered the jail to provide Pearson with a thorough medical examination, appropriate medication and "an opportunity to shower immediately."
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