By TODD LESKANIC The Tampa Tribune

DADE CITY - A woman whose ex-husband died after a 2002 stay in the Land O’ Lakes jail settled her lawsuit against the sheriff’s office for nearly $2 million earlier this month.

Keela Travis filed a federal lawsuit in 2004 on behalf of James Michael Chaney, the father of her two boys.

Her complaint alleged that Chaney died after corrections officers and jail medical staff failed to properly treat his drug withdrawals. At the time, Chaney was high on gamma-hydroxybutyricÖ acid, commonly known as GHB, the date rape drug.

The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office is responsible for $1.28 million of the $1.75 million settlement, and the county will pay another $15,000. Insurance companies for doctors and nurses contracted to care for inmates will cover the remaining $450,000.

Whatever money is left after paying legal fees and court costs will go into a fund for Travis’ two boys, now 10 and 11.

Travis, who now lives in Naples, won’t receive any of it, said her attorney, E. Clay Parker of Orlando.

“It’s always been the objective of the mother and the estate to create a situation where the boys were the recipients of the settlement,” he said.

Parker wouldn’t say how much money the boys would actually receive. They will be paid in yearly installments for the rest of their lives after they turn 18, he said.

Orlando attorney Thomas PoultonÖ, who represented the sheriff’s office, said the fact that Travis had named nearly 30 defendants made going to trial a risky proposition.

Had a jury found any defendant at fault, all would have been liable for the plaintiff’s attorney’s fees, which he estimated would have been more than $1 million, he said.

“We made a business decision,” Poulton said. “Sometimes it’s better to compromise on the claim for a lower settlement than it is to try it, spend the money and risk losing the attorney’s fees on top of all that.”

Chaney, 28, died Nov. 21, 2002, eight days after he was booked into the jail, arrested for trafficking GHB.

When he arrived at the jail, Chaney told deputies he was addicted to the drug and had used ecstasy and GHB immediately before his arrest.

Jail nurses failed to evaluate his condition and didn’t provide him treatment, according to the lawsuit. During his stay at the jail, he was forced into a cell and later thrown to the ground by a corrections officer.

Four days after Chaney’s arrival, a deputy found him unconscious. He was taken to Spring Hill Regional Hospital and then to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where he was pronounced brain dead.

He died four days later.

Contact Todd Leskanic at (352) 521-3156 or tleskanic@tampatrib.com.

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