Lawsuit alleges HIV-positive inmate died after being denied medication at Northern California jail

PLACERVILLE, Calif. — A lawsuit filed by the family of a man who died after being held in a Northern California prison claims he contracted a preventable viral infection there when medical staff denied him vital HIV medication for two months.

When Nicholas Overfield was arrested in February 2022 for failing to appear in court, he informed officers that he was HIV-positive and needed antiretroviral medication to control the virus, according to court records.

His mother, Lesley Overfield, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, presented arresting officers with her son’s prescription medications, but he was never administered them, the filing said.

“Medical records indicate that he was denied his prescribed HIV medications for the entire two months he was detained,” the lawsuit alleges.

Overfield’s health rapidly deteriorated when his HIV “turned into AIDS” and he was eventually released from prison and hospitalized, according to court documents. He died while under hospice care on June 21, 2022.

The civil lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court on Jan. 16 names El Dorado County and the jail’s contracted health care provider, Wellpath Community Care. It is seeking a jury trial and seeking unspecified damages.

County and Wellpath officials did not immediately respond Monday to emails seeking comment on the allegations.

The lawsuit says that when Lesley Overfield visited her son on April 22, 2022, he was “so ill and so weak that he could not even talk to his mother.” She demanded that “the jail provide Nick with the medical care he clearly needed” and he was rushed to a hospital that same evening, according to the complaint.

“Defendants were unaware or ignored the seriousness of Nick’s general health and medical conditions until forced to do so by his mother,” the lawsuit said.

Overfield’s death certificate stated that he died of encephalitis “and indicated that Nick contracted this virus two months prior to his death” while in custody, court documents show.