MUSKEGON, Mich. — Four Muskegon County Sheriff's Office deputies were sentenced Thursday for their role in the death of a Muskegon County Jail inmate in 2019.
According to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, Muskegon Sheriff’s deputies Jeffrey Patterson, Crystal Greve, Jamal Lane, and David Vanderlaan each pled no contest to Willful Neglect of Duty and were immediately sentenced to 100 hours of community service, and a $1,000 fine.
The incident occurred on April 4, 2019, when inmate Paul Bulthouse was being held at the Muskegon County Jail on a probation violation.
According to the AG's office, his health had been deteriorating since he was booked into the facility on March 22, 2019. During the night on April 3, and the early morning hours of April 4, surveillance video captured Bulthouse suffering from 18 seizures inside his solitary cell.
Also caught on surveillance video, was Deputies Patterson, Greve, Lane, and Vanderlaan's lack of response during that time.
Video showed the deputies conducting quick, in-person checks into Bulthouse's cell, as well as watching his cell through a monitor. At no time during the medical episodes did any of the deputies attempt medical care for the inmate.
Around the time of the deputy shift change at 6:00 a.m., Bulthouse was discovered lying unclothed on the floor of his jail cell in a pool of his own urine. The discovery was made by a different Muskegon County deputy who had not been assigned to Bulthouse’s floor during the prisoner’s distress. Bulthouse’s approximate time of death is reported to have been around 5:30 a.m. on April 4, 2019.
Since Bulthouse's death, the Muskegon County Sheriff’s Office has made several changes within the department.
Those include instituting new policies to provide for better care and custody of those held in the jail. Muskegon County also changed its medical service provider for the treatment of its inmates. Additionally, the Muskegon County Sheriff’s Office now requires all deputies to wear body cameras and microphones, including those deputies working inside the jail, to ensure accountability and increase transparency.
The Department of the Attorney General is currently working with the legislature on the following:
- Require jail correction staff to meet accreditation standards;
- Strengthen consequences, including termination, for when jail correction staff do not meet or violate those standards; and,
- Create a list of convictions that would prohibit a person from serving as jail correction staff.
“This is a tragic case that only highlights the need for legislative efforts when it comes to the care and custody of those individuals who are detained or incarcerated,” Nessel continued. “This was a horrible loss of life, that may have been avoided but for the inexcusable neglect of four deputies who serve roles of public service. We have a responsibility to increase the standards of service and care in this state’s corrections facilities and we intend to pursue that.”
Nessel says the Bulthouse family remains deeply troubled by the care he received while held in the Muskegon County Jail. The family has also expressed concern that the four deputies will remain in their positions with the Sheriff’s Office.
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