A Jail Diagnosed Him With HIV — Then Denied Him Life-Saving Medication, Lawsuit Says

Attorneys said Nicholas Overfield first discovered he was HIV-positive when he was taken into custody at El Dorado County Jail in Northern California in 2017. In 2020, while he was living in the Lake Tahoe area, a doctor prescribed him Juluca, an antiretroviral drug crucial in controlling the virus and preventing life-threatening complications, according to excerpts of medical records reviewed by HuffPost.

However, when Overfield was arrested for failing to appear in court in February 2022 and detained at that same jail, he was denied the medication — even though staff with Wellpath, the company contracted to provide health care at the jail, had received records from his doctor that he was taking it , according to an ongoing lawsuit brought by his mother, Lesley Overfield, against the company and El Dorado County. He died after 63 days in custody, before he was ever sentenced for the burglary charge to which he ultimately pleaded no contest. He was 38 years old.

“He was just a good kid. He just did everything, and it’s just really sad that he didn’t get to complete his life and do what he wanted to do,” Lesley Overfield told HuffPost, describing her son as a “kind, loving, generous” father to two boys, ages 8 and 10.

Under a 1976 Supreme Court ruling , jails and prisons cannot show “deliberate indifference” to the medical needs of people in their custody. Though Lesley Overfield said that she was concerned when her son was arrested in 2022, she believed he would be okay in the “controlled environment” of the jail. Instead, her lawsuit said Wellpath never treated her son for HIV, in spite of the records from his doctor that were received on the first day of his detention, his repeated pleas for his medication and jail