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The Center for At-Risk Elders Inc. has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a mentally ill Indianapolis woman, alleging her constitutional rights were violated when she was forcibly injected with drugs while detained by Marion County authorities.
According to the complaint, Adilah Patton was a pre-trial detainee at the Marion County Adult Detention Center in May 2022 when she received a forced injection of Invega Sustenna without her consent or the consent of her guardians.
The Marion Superior Court had ordered Patton to be transferred to Eskenazi Health for assessment after her guardian filed a request for voluntary transfer so she could receive her required medical treatments.
The lawsuit alleges Patton received another injection on June 16, 2022, a day before being transferred to the hospital. While forcing the injection on her, the center staff dislocated her left thumb, the lawsuit says.
Her thumb was treated in the emergency department and she was discharged back to the detention center that afternoon.
About a week later Patton received an injection of the steroid Depo-Medrol without her consent or her guardians, the lawsuit says.
The complaint further alleges that neither the Marion County Sheriff’s Department nor it health care contractor Wellpath checked the guardianship registry to determine if Patton had a guardian.
“The Marion County Sheriff operates the jail and has a legal obligation to protect those in his custody. This includes the care and treatment provided by Wellpath,” Mollie Golden, legal director of the Center for At-Risk Elders said in a news release. “Those with mental illness are not only not served by the current system, but in Ms. Patton’s case being directly harmed by it.”
The sheriff’s department declined to comment on pending litigation. Wellpath did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, claims Fourteenth Amendment violations as well as negligence, assault, battery, and excessive force. It seeks compensatory and punitive damages as well as declaratory and injunctive relief and a jury trial.
The case is Center for At-Risk Elders Inc., as Guardian of Adilah Patton v. Wellpath LLC, Marion County Sheriff and Theresa Wischmeyer RN, 1:24-cv-983.
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