A federal lawsuit filed last month brings to light another instance of a mentally ill Arkansas inmate dying in custody for what his family says was an ongoing lack of adequate medical care.

Jeffrey Hightower died on June 13, 2024, in the Independence County Jail in Batesville, where he’d been awaiting a transfer to the Arkansas State Hospital.

An autopsy revealed Hightower died from a perforated bowel and a subsequent infection. Attorneys for his family say Hightower had been complaining of rectal bleeding and pain, and requesting medical attention both verbally and in writing, for two months before his death.

The 80-page complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, chronicles Hightower’s two months of requests to see a doctor or go to the emergency room.

Hightower first complained of rectal bleeding to his jailers in mid-April 2024. Multiple written requests for medical attention followed, along with multiple requests for extra toilet paper to help him deal with ongoing bleeding and diarrhea.

Hightower made his first written request for medical help on April 23, 2024, when he said blood was running down his legs. He died nearly two months later, after making multiple verbal and written pleas for medical attention that attorneys for his family say was not given.

“On the morning of June 13, 2024, after reporting more bleeding, chest pain, shortness of breath, and registering an extremely high blood pressure reading, Jeffrey was placed in a
hallway to wait — without continuous monitoring and without being seen by any medical provider — instead of being sent for emergency care,” according to a press release from the Seattle-based law firm Budge & Heipt, which is representing Hightower’s family. “He collapsed and died in that hallway shortly afterward.”

Defendants include Independence County, for-profit prison health contractor County Facility Healthcare of Arkansas (CFHA) and its owner, Darrell Elkin.

County Facility Healthcare of Arkansas is also a defendant in another lawsuit alleging wrongful death of an Arkansas detainee. Randy James Rogers, 63, died from a heart attack in the Columbia County Jail in July 2022. His son sued, saying his father’s death came after weeks of neglect and after jail employees failed to quickly call for help in a medical emergency.

Like Rogers, Hightower was in jail after failing to appear in court. Hightower, who suffered from bipolar disorder and delusions, was arrested in 2021 after he broke into an apartment and insisted it was his.

During a mental evaluation following that arrest, Hightower told a physician that he was married to Taylor Swift; had been married to Sheryl Crow; and was a surgeon, an astrophysicist, a homebuilder and a member of the Green Berets, according to court documents.

Independence County Sheriff Shawn Stephens declined to comment on the lawsuit over Hightower’s death.

“The county does not have a statement to release,” Stephens wrote in response to our emailed questions. “This has been turned over to our attorneys.”

Hightower’s death brings to mind another sad ending. Larry Eugene Price Jr. died in the Sebastian County Jail in 2021, where he’d been locked up after he couldn’t pay $100 bail. Price suffered from schizophrenia and died of starvation in the jail. Price’s family eventually reached a $6 million settlement with Sebastian County and an Oklahoma-based health care business hired to provide inmate medical care.