Ex-inmate seeks trial over dental issue
The case of a former Washington County jail inmate who claims he was denied treatment for an infected tooth for five months is scheduled for a pretrial conference in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh.
Joseph W. Consonery Jr., now 48, who lives in Canonsburg, was taken into custody Feb. 6, 2009, for a probation violation on a drug possession charge and was housed in the county jail.
He said that when he arrived he informed a nurse at the jail that he had an infected tooth and that he needed to see a dentist. He said he experienced bleeding and severe pain and made nine requests for dental treatment.
When a physician’s assistant examined him in March of that year, Consonery was prescribed an antibiotic. Eight days later, according to the lawsuit, a dentist under contract to the county jail said he was unable to pull the tooth at the jail and that Consonery should see an oral surgeon because of the infected molar’s location.
Consonery claims then-Warden Joseph Pelzer denied him a furlough from the county jail so he could have the tooth extracted.
Washington County Court resentenced Consonery to serve 15 to 30 months, and he was placed in the custody of the state Department of Corrections. On June 11, 2009, he was transferred to the state prison at Camp Hill, where he said he received the necessary dental treatment.
He was released in November 2010 from the state prison at Chester in Chester County.
Consonery is seeking $200,000 in damages, according to an amended complaint he filed while asking to proceed as a pauper.
After hearing preliminary motions, Magistrate Judge Maureen P. Kelly wrote as part of a nine-page opinion, “A reasonable juror could find that having determined that dental pain was not a ‘crisis,’ defendants deliberately failed and delayed treatment for non-medical reasons.”
The attorney for the defendants argued that Consonery did not present evidence that failure to treat his rotting tooth and chronic pain occurred as a result of a policy or practice of Washington County.
The magistrate wrote that Pelzer’s belief that the jail was not required to provide outside medical treatment for inmates, regardless of the recommendation of their contract medical providers, “is one for jury resolution.”
Kelly also ruled that Washington County is not liable for punitive damages, but that possibility remains for its co-defendants, including Pelzer, who retired as warden last month; John Temas, who is now warden; Edward Strawn, who is now deputy warden; Capt. Michael King; corrections officers Chris Cain and John Stapleton, and a nurse who is identified only by the name “Esther.”
Under an agreement by Consonery and the county, the federal magistrate removed former Washington County district attorney Steven Toprani as a defendant in the suit.
The pretrial conference is scheduled March 20.