Richmond Sheriff Antionette Irving has reached a wrongful death settlement with the family of a man who died of an overdose in the city’s jail during 2023. It’s one of at least three federal cases Irving is facing over in-custody overdose deaths that occurred in 2022 and 2023.
Steven Carey died from a fentanyl overdose at the Richmond City Justice Center in January 2023. His sister filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in April 2024 against Irving and 20 unnamed sheriff's deputies, seeking over $6 million.
The lawsuit alleged violations of Carey’s constitutional rights and that Irving was negligent for allowing him and others “unfettered access” to fentanyl, claiming the sheriff “seemingly promoted, or at least permitted an inhumane environment to fester without taking any remedial or mitigating actions.”
After a failed bid to have the case thrown out, Irving reached a settlement agreement with Carey’s family on March 4 that still needs to be approved by the judge overseeing the case, court filings show.
The deal was agreed to five days before another person died at the jail Irving oversees — a facility currently under a state-imposed corrective action plan to address violations found during reviews of Carey’s death and others.
Details of the settlement were not disclosed in court filings, and Irving and her attorneys did not respond to a VPM News email requesting comment. The attorneys for Carey’s family also did not answer an email seeking details of the agreement.
Under Irving’s tenure, the city’s jail has faced scrutiny over in-custody deaths, violence, staffing shortages and other issues. There have been 13 in-custody deaths at the city’s jail since Irving became sheriff in 2018, she wrote in an email to VPM News. According to state reports, nine of these deaths have occurred since 2020.
The Carey family’s lawsuit claimed three people held at the jail, including Carey, died from fentanyl between March 2022 and January 2023.
The Virginia Board of Local and Regional Jails, which oversees jails and can investigate in-custody deaths, reviewed three — including Carey’s — that happened at Richmond’s jail from November 2022 to January 2023.
The investigations found the city’s jail staff weren’t conducting required hourly inspections and violated rules on documenting inspections and incidents, forcing the state to place the facility under a compliance plan to make improvements.
The plan, which was signed in November 2023 and is set to last at least two years, calls for Richmond’s jail to review security reports each day and for staff to be trained “on the penalty for forging public records.”
C.T. Woody, who preceded Irving in the position, also encountered issues while overseeing the jail. During a 3-day period in 2015, three people being held by the sheriff's office died. Woody was also accused of allowing video to be deleted that could have been used as evidence in a case around another incarcerated person’s death.
A federal judge found Woody not guilty in that case, but wrote that “some aspects of this record give this Court significant pause.”
Irving, Woody and jail staff members were deposed for the Carey family lawsuit. Their filing alleged Irving was deliberately indifferent to the health and safety of people held at the jail, centering on supervision policy changes the sheriff made.
Irving said during her deposition that she removed deputies and monitoring devices that used to be located in housing units due to a staffing shortage, according to court filings. From 2021 until 2024, the lawsuit states, vacancies in the jail increased from 110 to 191.
In his deposition, Woody said the jail was designed for direct supervision of the people held there. He called Irving’s nondirect supervision policy “dangerous.”
The lawsuit claimed Irving’s policy delayed the medical response to Carey’s overdose because deputies were outside of the unit. The document added that people held at the jail “governed themselves, even essentially becoming emergency responders.”
The first jail employee to arrive at Carey’s cell, a sergeant, did not have Narcan and did not attempt to help give medical care to Carey, who was unresponsive, the lawsuit claimed. Medical personnel arrived five minutes after an intercom button for help was pushed by another man held in the unit, documents indicated.
A deputy on duty in Carey’s unit the day before his death said he violated the inspection policy by not conducting them, per court filings. He claimed he was trained on security checks early in his career, but didn’t recall being disciplined for not following the policy.
Online court records show Carey was charged with murder, attempted murder, gun-related offenses and more when he was taken to Richmond’s jail. He was awaiting trial on multiple charges but pleaded guilty to firing a gun from a motor vehicle and eluding police, according to online court records.
Carey suffered from “severe mental health conditions” and had a history of drug use, the lawsuit claimed. According to filings, he was found with drugs while in custody months before his death; he told a doctor at the jail that his worst fear was overdosing.
