Family of Marion jail inmate who died in custody files wrongful death suit against sheriff

Crime scene photo from inside the Marion County jail of just outside the cell where Scott Whitley was killed.

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Posted January 18, 2024 | By Caroline Brauchler
caroline@ocalagazette.com

The family of an inmate who died in custody at the Marion County Jail has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Sheriff Billy Woods and several corrections deputies involved in the man’s death.

The lawsuit claims that while Scott Whitley, 47, was in custody at the jail in November 2022,“He was killed by deputies despite complying with their commands and remaining seated in his cell.”

The plaintiff, sister Pam Whitley on behalf of the decedent’s estate, requests that the court reward damages on all counts against the defendants, in addition to attorney’s fees and any other compensatory, exemplary and punitive damages that the court decides as just.

Whitley had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, which his sister said the Marion County Sheriff’s Office was aware of yet didn’t take into consideration when interacting with Whitley in the jail.

“Scotty he was a very kind and caring person,” Pam Whitley said. “He had a zest for life. No matter what was going on. He always would wake up and be excited for the day. I always admired that about Scotty.”

Whitley was labeled as a suicide precaution inmate after being taken into custody on Nov. 16, which required him to be held in surveilled solitary confinement and for jail personnel to conduct strip searches and cell inspections every 15 minutes, according to MCSO policy 6541.00. 

On the day Whitley died, jail staff said he was uncooperative during a routine cell inspection, to the point where detention deputies repeatedly deployed pepper foam and used Tasers to attempt to gain his compliance but were unsuccessful. Ultimately, six detention deputies were needed to forcefully subdue Whitley. When he was brought out of his cell, deputies found that he was not breathing. Jail medics attempted lifesaving care, but he was pronounced dead shortly after at AdventHealth Ocala hospital.

“Scotty suffered from multiple blunt force traumas to the head, neck, torso and extremities, and deep tissue hemorrhaging. His death was ruled a homicide,” according to the lawsuit.

Whitley was awaiting trial after being arrested on charges of violating an injunction for the protection of a vulnerable adult and resisting an officer with violence. Whitley’s parents, Scott Whitley Jr., 81, and Margaret Whitley, 77, filed the injunction in 2022 to have him removed from their home because he was unmedicated for his mental health conditions. The family said they feared for their safety at times due to their son’s symptoms of schizophrenia and his strength, which they wanted to prevent from escalating into violence.

“Stopping and starting the meds just seemed to make his illness much worse,” Pam Whitley said. “His belief was that people were out to kill him. And he thought at times, we were out to kill him, that my parents were out to kill him, which obviously was not true. But he always had that fear.”

To protect the parents and to try to get Whitley help, the family made the difficult decision to hire an attorney and file an injunction to remove him from their Ocala home, a decision that Pam Whitley called “a last resort.”

“I couldn’t predict what was going on in his head, but he had gotten to the point where my father was fearful for his life and for my mother’s life,” she said. “So that was the last resort, and taking that last resort was at a cost, which was (the officers) killing him.”

After the incident in the jail that resulted in Whitley’s death, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement conducted an investigation. The findings were forwarded to State Attorney Bill Gladson, whose office stated that none of the corrections officers involved were at fault for any criminal wrongdoing, and no charges were filed.

The family’s attorney, James Slater, and the MCSO entered into an agreed order in the probate case that allowed Whitley’s family to have video footage of the incident that would usually be exempt from public record with one caveat—they not share the video with anyone else. After seeing the footage, the family’s descriptions of the officers’ actions that caused Whitley’s death were much different than how MCSO and FDLE described them.

“They rushed his cell, taking Scotty to the ground, hitting his upper extremities against the concrete. Despite his compliance, deputies deployed multiple Taser strikes against Scotty while he laid on the ground screaming and pleading for help,” Slater wrote. “Other deputies administered more pepper spray and Scotty remained motionless on the ground before being dragged out of the cell on his stomach. By then, his chest was not rising and his face was blue. Scotty was dead.”

The “Gazette” has repeatedly requested to obtain the footage and has expressed an intent on filing suit to obtain it, but the MCSO has refused to release it, claiming it is confidential under Florida Statute 281.301. That statute is meant to exempt information from the public that could impact the security of a facility.

In an effort to cooperate with MCSO and to avoid litigation, the “Gazette” has offered to only view the footage without releasing it to the public to compare both accounts, in addition to offering to only obtain the audio from the footage. Both requests have been denied.

“In that video, there lies the truth, and it can’t be denied what they did. The public needs to see that video so my brother will not have died in vain,” Pam Whitley said.

In addition to Woods, the family’s lawsuit was filed against Capt. Robert Andrew Walters, Sgt. Ashleigh Snodgrass, Corporal Arnault Canelle, Corporal Jordon Ortega, Deputy Carl Holmer, Deputy Christopher Kristensen, Deputy Xavier McMiller, Deputy Demontra Smith and Deputy Sa’Quan Wyman.

The “Gazette” obtained the personnel files and disciplinary history of each of the officers involved in Whitley’s death. Each officer’s involvement in the incident that resulted in Whitley’s death, in addition to any relevant disciplinary history, appears below.

Whitley had been scheduled to appear in court in December. Public Defender Sean Kevin Gravel entered a plea of not guilty on Whitley’s behalf after his client’s death, as the Fifth Judicial Circuit had not been notified of his death.

A judge found no probable cause in the first charge of violating an injunction, which could have meant Whitley would have been released from jail if not for the second charge of resisting an officer with violence, which is a felony.

If the judge found no probable cause on both of the charges, Whitley could have been released from jail, said Public Defender Mike Graves.

“With everything I saw, he was in custody legally on one of those charges,” Graves said.

Graves was not involved in Whitley’s case, but he discussed the procedures for a client who is suspected of being mentally ill.

“When there’s a mental illness that we think can affect their competency to be able to proceed, we have a doctor appointed by the court, or more often in a felony case, will hire the doctor,” he said. “That’s a two- to three-week process in and of itself; so suffice to say, we didn’t get that far before this tragedy, this sad thing happened.”

Whitley’s mental health history was well documented to MCSO, as he was involuntarily placed under the Baker Act nine times since March 2021. One of those incidents happened outside of Marion County, according to Pam Whitley.

She said the family’s intention was to have Whitley institutionalized after the injunction was served to protect the safety of everyone involved.

“Our goal was to plead to the court, plead to the judge to have him institutionalized for at least three months in the mental hospital, and we were robbed of that opportunity,” she said. “Because they sadistically and maliciously killed my brother, and that should never happened. What they did to him, he didn’t deserve. No one deserves that.”

With the family’s disappointment after none of the involved officers received criminal charges, Pam Whitley filed the lawsuit on behalf of Whitley’s estate in an effort to bring “justice” and closure.

“Justice would be that those involved were held accountable for their actions. They all took a sworn oath when they joined the Marion County Sheriff’s Office and they violated that oath,” she said.

 

Canelle

Canelle was one of the deputies who entered Whitley’s cell to gain his compliance. According to the FDLE investigation, Canelle discharged his Taser five times. Canelle described two times his Tasers made contact with Whitley, one on his lower back and the other in his abdomen, in his interview with FDLE investigators.

In Canelle’s disciplinary history, he had previously been placed on a 24-hour paid suspension in January 2019 after violating the use of force, use of chemical agents and dereliction of duty policies during an incident with two inmates in the medical pod. An internal investigation into the incident found Canelle had administered excessive amounts of pepper foam to the faces of both inmates despite their compliance, and that he did not document the incident properly.

The MCSO administrative review report on Whitley’s death lists Canelle as an involved officer, but this was not included in his file.

 

Snodgrass

Snodgrass was the supervisor on duty while the deputies were conducting searches on the day of the incident that caused Whitley’s death. Snodgrass stood outside Whitley’s cell during the altercation, and called for the intervention of Walters, the captain. Walters advised Snodgrass to call 911 when he noticed that Whitley was unresponsive. Snodgrass handled the evidence once deputies bagged it up after Whitley was transported from the scene, according to the FDLE report.

Dating back to 2006, Snodgrass has indirectly or directly been involved with or supervised 44 instances of use of force. There is no record of an investigation into any of these instances and no disciplinary action is included in her file.

 

Holmer

In the incident that resulted in Whitley’s death, Holmer attempted to gain Whitley’s compliance both from outside and inside the cell. Holmer’s Taser was discharged five times throughout the duration of the incident, and he recalled discharging it at least two times when being interviewed by the FDLE.

In May 2016, Holmer received a letter of reprimand after an incident of inappropriate use of force, by using his Taser on an inmate who was cooperating while on his knees with his hands above his head.

The MCSO administrative review report on Whitley’s death lists Holmer as an involved officer, but this was not included in his file.

 

Kristensen

Kristensen was in the Alpha pod to conduct a routine cell inspection and said he tried to get Whitley to comply both from outside and inside the cell. Kristensen told FDLE investigators that he sprayed chemical agents from outside the cell, then was grabbing Whitley’s right arm inside the cell while his left arm was pinned beneath him. Kristensen placed arm and leg restraints on Whitley to gain his compliance before the inmate was brought out of the cell and found to be unresponsive, according to the FDLE report.

Since 2022, Kristensen has directly or indirectly been involved in 24 instances of use of force. There is no record of an investigation into any of these instances and no disciplinary action is included in his file.

Only Kristensen’s involvement in Whitley’s death was further investigated with an internal administrative review and external FDLE investigation, to which the state attorney’s office filed no criminal charges.

 

Smith

Smith said he was one of the last people to enter Whitley’s cell. Smith told FDLE investigators he was holding Whitley’s left arm and used his Taser, adding he later threw the Taser outside the cell so that he could use both hands. Smith’s Taser was deployed six times, according to the FDLE report.

Since 2022, Smith has directly or indirectly been involved in five instances of use of force. There is no record of investigation into any of these instances and no disciplinary action is included in his file.

Only Smith’s involvement in Whitley’s death was further investigated with an internal administrative review and external FDLE investigation, to which the state attorney’s office filed no criminal charges.

 

Ortega

Ortega responded to the area in reference to a noncompliant inmate. He told FDLE investigators that he sprayed Whitley with pepper foam from outside the cell and was then the first officer to enter the cell when instructed to do so. He said he attempted to pin Whitley to the cot, deployed his Taser more than once, and was at Whitley’s lower back while other officers were putting him in arm and leg restraints but could feel him breathing, according to the FDLE report.

Since 2019, Ortega has directly or indirectly been involved in 35 instances of use of force. There is no record of investigation into any of these instances and no disciplinary action is included in his file.

The MCSO administrative review report on Whitley’s death lists Ortega as an involved officer, but this was not included in his file.

 

Walters

Walters responded to the scene and supervised the altercation from outside the cell. Once Whitley was brought out of the cell, Walters noticed he was unresponsive and told the deputies to roll him over so they could check for his breathing. Walters told Snodgrass to call 911 after requesting jail medical staff and CPR.

Walters, a captain, has use of force incidents dating back to 2006. There are 94 reports of use of force in his file, with no record of investigations or disciplinary action.

 

McMiller

McMiller arrived on the scene once the cell doors were open and the officers were inside attempting to gain Whitley’s compliance. McMiller told FDLE investigators that he deployed his Taser twice, tried to get Whitley’s hands behind his back, sprayed pepper foam and handed restraints to the other officers.

McMiller was involved in an incident with Whitley prior to this one, when Whitley attempted to make his way out of the infirmary.

Dating back to 2019, McMiller has been directly or indirectly involved in 59 instances of use of force. There is no record of investigation into any of these instances and no disciplinary action is included in his file.

The MCSO administrative review report on Whitley’s death lists McMiller as an involved officer, but this was not included in his file.

 

Wyman

Wyman never entered Whitley’s cell but was instead instructed to spray him with pepper spray from outside while the other deputies subdued Whitley from inside the cell. Wyman inadvertently sprayed himself with pepper spray and left to be treated for the exposure.

In March 2023, an investigation was opened after a claim that Wyman used inappropriate force on a special needs inmate. Wyman was found to have shoved the inmate with both hands, while the inmate was handcuffed, causing him to fall to the floor and strike his head on the wall, according to the administrative review. Wyman was found in violation of the code of conduct for insubordination and committing a crime and resigned shortly after in June of 2023.

The MCSO administrative review report on Whitley’s death lists Wyman as an involved officer, but this was not included in his file.