Crime & Law
Family Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit After Michael Broadway Dies in IDOC Custody: ‘He Was Failed at Every Turn’
Attorneys and family gather outside Stateville Correctional Center on Nov. 14, 2024, to announce the filing of a wrongful death lawsuit over the death of Michael Broadway. He died in June while in custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections. (Blair Paddock / WTTW News)
A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed over the death of Michael Broadway, a 51-year-old man who died while in custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections.
“The actions of the Defendants breached the duty of care owed to prisoners in their custody,” the lawsuit states. “They did so by negligently ignoring Michael’s requests for medical attention.”
Broadway, who was incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center, died on June 19 due to bronchial asthma, with hypertensive cardiovascular disease and heat stress as “significant contributing conditions,” according to an autopsy report from the Will County Coroner’s Office that was provided to WTTW News.
Broadway’s wife, Chunece Jones-Broadway, filed the eight-count lawsuit against IDOC, Wexford Health Sources, Inc. — the controversial private health care provider for IDOC — and individual employees of both entities on Thursday.
“When (Broadway) needed help from the people who were entrusted to help him, whose job it was to help him, he was failed at every turn,” said Terah Tollner, one of the lawyers with Kaplan & Grady representing Jones-Broadway.
The lawsuit alleges there were multiple Eighth Amendment violations, including a deliberate indifference to Broadway’s medical needs and a failure to intervene to prevent the violation of Broadway’s constitutional rights.
“Michael’s injuries, including but not limited to pain and suffering, emotional distress, and death were proximately caused by policies and practices of Defendant Wexford Health Sources, Inc.,” the lawsuit states.
Wexford Health Sources did not respond to a request for comment.
In a statement, an IDOC spokesperson said: “The Department takes seriously its commitment to serve justice and support the well-being of both our staff and the individuals in custody. At this time we are unable to comment further due to ongoing litigation.”
The lawsuit alleges that Broadway, as well as the incarcerated population as a whole, received unconstitutionally inadequate health care due to policies or widespread practices in IDOC. These include health care personnel commonly failing to respond or follow up on complaints; delays in responding to emerging situations with necessary medical equipment; failures to adequately diagnose or treat patients; and delays in contacting emergency medical services.
“These widespread policies and practices were allowed to flourish because Defendant Wexford, which directs the provision of healthcare services within IDOC, directly encouraged the very type of misconduct at issue in this case,” the lawsuit states.
The filing also alleges violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act for failing to reasonably accommodate Broadway’s disability: asthma.
Broadway’s asthma was so severe that he requested a special medical order, called a “low-gallery permit,” to ensure he’d be assigned a cell on a low floor within the cell house, according to the lawsuit. IDOC denied his request and assigned him to a cell on the fifth floor — “the highest and hottest gallery” in his housing unit — despite empty cells on lower floors, the suit alleges.
Broadway’s death came just months before those incarcerated at Stateville were transferred out of the facility due to an order from a federal judge. The court found a probable risk of irreparable harm from falling concrete attributed to the deteriorated masonry walls, ceilings, steel beams and window lintels at Stateville.
The transfer came as Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration proposed a $900 million plan to close both Stateville and Logan Correctional Center, rebuilding both on Stateville’s sprawling Crest Hill property. The rebuilds could take about five years.
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The days before Broadway’s death were some of the hottest in June, with the heat index in nearby Joliet reaching 100 degrees on June 17, according to weather data. Heat only intensified on the higher floors of the prison, said Anthony Ehlers, a friend whose cell was near Broadway’s, in a written statement provided to WTTW News.
Not a single window was open, Ehlers wrote; everything for ventilation purposes in the area of their cells was either closed or locked. In front of his and Broadway’s cell there was a padlocked exhaust fan, he added. The lawsuit states there was no air conditioning in Broadway’s housing unit.
On June 19, Broadway began struggling to breathe, according to the lawsuit. While he was still physically able to, Broadway and friends called correctional officers for help.
Even after alerting staff, the lawsuit alleges, there was a “shocking disregard for Michael’s safety and humanity.” There was a delay in calling 911 or a code 3, which alerts staff of a medical emergency, requiring a prompt response with medical equipment, and a nurse said she would not go to Broadway’s cell because it was “too hot upstairs.”
When the nurse did see Broadway, the lawsuit alleges, she did not bring the proper medical equipment and administered two doses of the opioid overdose reversal medication naloxone.
“I yelled out ‘he doesn’t do drugs, he has asthma.’ I yelled it over and over until she said ‘okay, I hear you.’ I told her ‘then do something for him,’” Ehlers wrote in his affidavit.
911 was called. According to audio of a 911 call of the incident, a nurse explained to the dispatcher that “it’s a possible overdose, probably possible heat stroke.”
The dispatcher asked how long he’s been outside if there’s a chance he has heat stroke.
“No, he’s been in his cell, but it’s like 100 and something degrees in here,” the nurse replied.
A code 3 was called and a stretcher was brought to Broadway’s cell, the suit states. However, the stretcher was missing straps and handles, so instead Broadway was carried down by the bed sheets from a nearby cell by officers and another incarcerated man, the suit continues.
“Nearly an hour after Michael first called for help, Michael was finally transported by ambulance to St. Joseph’s Hospital,” the lawsuit states. “He was declared dead soon after arrival.”
“It was a clown show from start to finish and as a result our brother died. Needlessly,” Ehlers wrote to WTTW News in June. “What that tells me is we are not safe here. As a result of these conditions, our brother died.”
Five IDOC staff received “Team Efforts Award Commendation” praising them for their “seamless execution of the emergency response plan,” according to the lawsuit.
“Even though Michael died as a result of Defendants’ indifference, the so-called ‘commendation’ makes no mention of Michael or the fact that he died an entirely preventable death,” the lawsuit continues.
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Broadway was among the first group of incarcerated men to receive a bachelor’s degree from a top 10 university when he was awarded a diploma in November 2023 along with 15 others from Northwestern University.
An author and stage 4 prostate cancer survivor, Broadway was given a special acknowledgement during the graduation ceremony at Stateville on Nov. 15, 2023, by renowned writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, the commencement speaker, who held up a copy of Broadway’s book.
Broadway was a self-described “regular student,” but had ambitions exceeding that framing, one of them being publishing a second book. His first, “One Foot In,” was published while he was incarcerated last year.
“He wanted to help the other guys that were incarcerated,” said Karen Ranos, the lawyer litigating his post-conviction petition. “He wanted to go out (and get) an understanding of not only what causes people to be caught up in crime, but also how to prevent it. What do these people really need?”
Broadway had served 18 years of his 75-year sentence.
Ranos said she was litigating a petition claiming his innocence on his first-degree murder conviction “as well as some other claims we had about constitutional violations.”
Pending his release, Broadway had plans to start the Rich Soil Foundation, a nonprofit promising to “plant seeds of encouragement for today’s youth through art, sports, music, and STEM.”
Jones-Broadway remembers her husband as a fun-loving and outgoing person. Education for himself and his family was important to him, she said.
Brian Broadway, his younger brother, said he spoke to Michael Broadway about an hour before this incident. Shortly after they spoke, someone called him saying that Broadway “was having an attack” — “I couldn’t believe it, because when I talked to him, he was well and fine,” Brian Broadway said.
Broadway’s legacy, one of encouragement, ambition and caring spirit, will live on, Brian Broadway said: “His spirit, his smile, his encouragement, it’s unmatched.”
Note: This article has been updated to include a comment from the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Contact Blair Paddock: @blairpaddock | [email protected]
