Grand jury indicts 2 Bureau of Prisons employees in inmate’s death
Jun 7, 2023, 4:01 PM
PETERSBURG, Va. (AP) — A grand jury has indicted two federal Bureau of Prisons employees for allegedly failing to provide medical care for an inmate in Virginia who had a serious medical emergency and later died, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
Lt. Shronda Covington, 47, and registered nurse Tonya Farley, 52, face charges of allegedly violating the inmate’s civil rights by showing deliberate indifference to the male inmate’s medical needs at the Federal Correctional Institution at Petersburg, Virginia, in January 2021, a department news release said.
Farley is also charged with writing a false report about the incident. Covington and Farley, both residents of Chesterfield, Virginia, are also both charged with making false statements to federal agents.
Records obtained by The Associated Press identified the man who died as Wade Walters. He died on Jan. 10, 2021, with his category of death listed as “cardiac,” but the documents did not specify a cause of death.
The civil rights charges each carry a maximum penalty of life in prison, the false report charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 in prison and each false statement charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
It was not immediately known if the two employees had lawyers who could comment for them.
