By John Monk
The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.)
CHARLESTON, S.C. — If Richland County officials hoped to keep secret the millions they are paying to avoid a trial in an Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center dead inmate’s wrongful death lawsuit, their hopes were dashed Monday morning in a Charleston federal courtroom.
After all, county council member Paul Livingston had refused to talk about a possible settlement in the 2022 lawsuit when contacted a few weeks ago by a State newspaper reporter. An item on the county council agenda had indicated the 11-member council had discussed the lawsuit in an executive session.
But Monday morning, during a settlement hearing in the court of U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel, the amount was disclosed by Columbia attorney Barkari Sellers, who represented Lakeshia Butler, mother of the dead inmate, Lason Butler, 27.
“The total settlement is $3.8 million,” Sellers told Gergel.
The county, which operates Alvin S . Glenn, is self-insured and apparently will pay that amount out of the county budget.
To that $3.8 million from the county must be added another $6 million paid by WellPath insurers, a now-bankrupt healthcare provider, in a separate settlement with Butler’s mother that enabled them to avoid a trial in Lason Butler’s death, Sellers told Gergel. The $6 million payment by WellPath was not publicly disclosed until Monday.
Both settlements in Butler’s death add up to $9.8 million — a whopping amount to pay in the apparently needless demise of a young man from Orangeburg who was going to truck driving school and wound up in the county’s Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center for a traffic violation.
The $9.8 million total settlements underscored the dangerous conditions at Richland County’s Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, conditions written about in a January 2025 investigative report by the U.S. Department of Justice civil rights division. The report noted that conditions at the jail expose inmates to “unreasonable risk of serious harm.”
The county has embarked on a $33 million project to upgrade numerous substandard conditions at the jail, county officials told a State reporter in January 2025, just before the Justice Department’s report was published.
Under Monday’s settlement agreement — in which neither the county nor Wellpath admitted fault — neither the Butler attorneys nor the county attorneys can discuss the amounts in public, Sellers told Gergel. But they could mention the amounts in a courtroom.
The settlement ends a nearly four-year legal battle. A jury trial in the case could theoretically have resulted in a higher, or lower, verdict.
Gergel politely told Sellers that he believes in transparency.
“When you fly into my airspace, it’s public,” the judge said.
Besides, Gergel pointed out, a reporter from The State newspaper was sitting in the courtroom listening to the dollar amounts Sellers had just ticked off.
Also, said Gergel, hopefully the lawsuit has and will spur improvements for inmates at Alvin S . Glenn. Lason Butler’s death
According to a lawsuit and evidence in the case, Lason Butler was arrested on a traffic violation on Jan. 31 2022 and taken to Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, a county facility that can hold approximately 1,100 inmates who have been arrested and who are awaiting trial, as well as some who have been sentenced.
Located on Bluff Road, about 4 miles southeast of I-77 and miles from downtown Columbia, the facility is named after Alvin Sherman Glenn, a guard at the detention center who was beaten to death by inmates in the year 2000.
Butler’s traffic violation was “misdemeanor failure to stop for a blue light resulting in an automobile accident,” according to the lawsuit filed by his mother in federal court in August 2022.
Once in jail at Alvin S . Glenn, Butler’s behavior was noted to be “erratic” and he was assigned to a cell block called the “Special Housing Unit even though Defendant Richland County knew housing an inmate with mental health needs there was inappropriate and improper,” the lawsuit alleged.
On Feb. 7, 2022, jail officials received a report from an inmate who stated that Butler’s cell was covered in feces, and he was “barking like a dog,” the lawsuit alleged.
On Feb. 8, 2022, Butler had his first mental health assessment, and it was noted that he appeared “floridly psychotic and would not respond,” the lawsuit alleged. The mental health professional noted that Butler was thinking about suicide and harming someone but couldn’t say why, the lawsuit alleged. Butler’s cell was unsanitary, the lawsuit alleged.
On Feb. 10, 2022, a jail official told Lakeshia Butler that her son “was in no shape for visitors, she could not see him,” and that “all we can do is pray for him,” the lawsuit alleged.
On Feb. 11, 2022, jail officials placed Butler on suicide watch after they found him lying the floor nude; they also said it was not possible to communicate with him, the lawsuit alleged.
On Feb. 12, 2022, jail officials found Butler dead in his cell. He was covered with rat bites and his cell had no running water, the lawsuit alleged.
An autopsy found he died of dehydration, the lawsuit alleged. During his 12 days in jail, the 247-pound Butler had lost 32 pounds, the lawsuit alleged.
The lawsuit alleged various constitutional violations during the care and confinement of Butler.
Jail officials and the Richland County government have “an affirmative duty to provide for the basic needs of persons, including food, clothing, shelter, water, and sanitary conditions to individuals in their custody and care, including (Butler). (He) was housed in the Special Housing Unit in unsanitary conditions that included human feces, lack of running water, and infestation with flies and rodents,” the lawsuit alleged.
In replies to the lawsuit, the county government and jail officials denied the allegations.
Representing the county government in court on Monday were Lindsay Anne Joyner, a private Columbia attorney, and Patrick Wright, the Richland County attorney. Both declined comment after court, as did Sellers and his co-counsel Audia Jones .
The county public relations office did not respond to an email from The State newspaper requesting comment by the close of business Monday requesting comment.
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