Six people overdosed in the Deschutes County Jail over four days

Published 3:30 am Friday, January 6, 2023

Six people reportedly experienced drug overdoses in the Deschutes County jail over four days starting on New Year’s Eve, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office reported Thursday.

At least five of the inmates overdosed in less than four hours after an inmate allegedly snuck suspected counterfeit fentanyl pills into the jail on New Year’s Eve and handed them out to other inmates.

A 25-year-old inmate, Sean Robert McDonald, could face charges of drug possession and delivery and reckless endangerment, police said.

McDonald has not yet been charged in Deschutes County Circuit Court.

The sixth person reportedly overdosed on Jan. 3. Five of the people were taken to St. Charles Bend and survived the overdoses. One of them did not need to be hospitalized, the sheriff’s office reported.

The sheriff’s office reported Thursday that emergency personnel responded to the overdoses with the life-saving medication naloxone — a nasal spray used to halt an overdose — CPR and an automated external defibrillator, which is used to save people in cardiac arrest.

Sheriff’s office staff reportedly used naloxone, more commonly known as Narcan, on at least four of the people.

In response to the incident, the sheriff’s office investigated and reportedly found at least 50 counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl in the jail. Officials are continuing to investigate, a press release said.

In 2021, the sheriff’s office reported four instances where naloxone had to be administered to halt a suspected overdose.

The sheriff’s office did not disclose how the inmate allegedly got the pills into the jail. Sheriff’s office personnel did not return multiple calls seeking comment Thursday.

The sheriff’s office started training jail staff on the use of naloxone in 2015, when the nasal spray version of the drug was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

In December 2014, inmate Edwin Burl Mays III died of a methamphetamine overdose in the Deschutes County jail.

Surveillance video showed jail deputies mocked Mays and ignored his declining medical condition over the roughly four hours between his booking into the jail and being declared dead in a holding cell.

Mays’ family filed a lawsuit against the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, seeking more than $15 million. The sheriff’s office settled the suit in December 2016 for $1.025 million.