The City of St. Louis will not represent several jail correctional officers and supervisors accused of neglecting a detainee in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Samuel Hayes Jr., who died in custody last year. Experts say that while the city can take the step, it is rarely done and exposes the city workers to personal liability.
Hayes died on July 19, 2025, after he was placed in a restraint chair at the St. Louis City Justice Center following an altercation with his cellmate, which public safety officials said started just after 8 p.m. that day. According to the lawsuit, jail employees restrained Hayes, 31, and two nurses briefly tended to him but then left him unattended while he convulsed and cried out for about 20 minutes.
When a worker arrived an hour and a half later, Hayes had stopped moving and was taken to St. Louis University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He had been held at the jail for about a year on charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action, and never got the chance to go to trial.
According to court records, five correctional officers and two jail supervisors are listed in the lawsuit. The jail's medical provider, Physician Correctional USA, and the city are also defendants.
At least three of the seven jail employees named in the lawsuit are still working at the jail, according to an emailed confirmation from city officials. The amount of compensatory damages will be determined at trial, the lawsuit states.
City spokesperson Holly Roberts confirmed the city counselor's office has chosen not to represent the jail employees in the lawsuit but declined to say more as the city "does not comment on pending litigation."
According to the city charter, the counselor's office is the chief legal adviser and attorney for the mayor, the Board of Aldermen and city departments. The counselor's office is providing legal representation for the city, but workers have been left to retain their own attorneys in the Hayes lawsuit.
Hayes' mother, Anita Washington, said the city's decision to back away from covering the jail in the lawsuit, coupled with the fact that some individuals who may have been involved in Hayes' death are still employed there, feels like a "slap in the face."
"Somebody needs to take accountability for something," Washington said. "How dare you allow these people to still work for this city. Nobody won't take accountability for killing my son, and that's so unfair to me. That's why I'm so hurt, and I'm so pissed off."
At least 22 people have died in custody at the St. Louis City Justice Center since 2020. The death of Dametria McDile, 32, was the most recent, earlier this year. A recent NAACP report said the jail quietly fired a nurse and correctional officer for ignoring McDile's complaints that she couldn't breathe.
Jail officials say they've been working to improve conditions by hiring more "quality" staff and removing bad actors, as well as expanding programs for detainees.
Questions about the move
Experts say the city's decision to decline to cover jail employees in the lawsuit comes as a "shock."
Maureen Hanlon, a lawyer at the legal advocacy firm ArchCity Defenders, has represented current and former jail detainees in St. Louis for seven years — typically individuals who say they're victims of poor practices by city employees. ArchCity is not representing Hayes' family in this particular case.
Hanlon said that although she is partial to her clients, the city's decision to leave correctional officers to defend themselves is troubling.
"I am shocked and concerned to hear that the City of St. Louis would decide to abandon correctional officers to represent and indemnify themselves. I think that is unheard of outside of very limited contexts — where maybe there's some sort of criminal prosecution occurring or some kind of conflict with the specific CO (or) where there's an adverse relationship there," Hanlon said.
Hanlon noted that usually the city would help handle legal matters for jail defendants named in suits like the Sam Hayes case, particularly since the city is responsible for employing workers at the jail to take care of detainees.
Without the city's representation, case defendants are left vulnerable to potentially having their wages garnished if the final judgment calls for that, Hanlon said.
"My background is on the side of the people who are suing, but there are certain jobs — nurses, police officers, firefighters, EMTs — where just you cannot get people to do those jobs if those people are going to be facing being alone to defend themselves against lawsuits," Hanlon added.
But the city's decision is not new, and it's not illegal.
Since the local charter states the city counselor's role is to represent the city itself and advise its departments in their official capacities, courts have had to interpret the charter language and determine if it means the city should be explicitly held liable.
The city declined to represent two off-duty police officers accused of shooting a man outside a south St. Louis bar in 2018. A court interpretation of the city charter in 2021 suggested that while the city has the discretionary authority to defend and indemnify its department employees, it was not mandatory for civil suits.
Because of this, no laws have been broken, according to Michael Duff, who works with the William C. Wefel Center for Employment Law at St. Louis University's School of Law. Although the mayor's office declined to go into detail, Duff said there could be a number of reasons the city has chosen not to represent jail employees in the Hayes lawsuit.
"It could be that (the city) is concerned enough about the fact that the employees may have done something that would embarrass the city, that they don't agree with," Duff said.
Based on the contract for the jail's medical provider Physician Correctional USA, the city also is not required to represent any of the nurses and other PC-USA staff members named in the lawsuit — PC-USA provides its own legal representation.
Still, some question whether the mayor's office is avoiding accountability. Last year, Mayor Cara Spencer stood firm in opposition against former Sheriff Alfred Montgomery's bid to take control of the city jail, arguing that the jail must remain under the oversight of the city's executive branch instead of transitioning to the sheriff's office.
The mayor's effort to keep the jail under her jurisdiction makes the city's decision not to represent jail employees in the Hayes lawsuit even more unbelievable, said Anders Walker, a law professor at St. Louis University.
"Don't get me wrong, I support Mayor Spencer. I just think maybe she needs to review this matter," Walker said. "I think the city should represent all these people, and maybe Spencer needs to take more control over the jail and not just say, 'Oh, it's not our problem.'"
Lawsuit moves forward
Jack Waldron, a lawyer at Khazaeli Wyrsch Law, which is representing Washington in the Hayes lawsuit, said the lawsuit was filed quickly due to video footage showing Hayes' death. Discovery has been ongoing, with delays due to the city not representing several defendants.
He said that in his experience it's typical for most local governments not to investigate medical neglect when it comes to in-custody deaths.
"A lot of times it looks like county jails or city jails will say, 'Was this person murdered?' And if they don't establish that this person was murdered, then they say, 'OK, well, it's natural causes.' Just because somebody wasn't murdered doesn't mean that there weren't a whole lot of mistakes that were made," Waldron said.
Waldron said Hayes' family has been resilient since his death, noting that this past Christmas was rough for Hayes' children as it was the first one without him.
"I've been struck by the way the family has managed to stick together through the hardest year imaginable," Waldron said.
A jury trial is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 11, according to court records.
The Marshall Project's Ivy Scott contributed to this report.
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