Ryan Everson: Father-of-three dies in Missouri jail after arrest for failure to pay child support
CLAY COUNTY, MISSOURI: A father from Missouri died in jail after being jailed for failing to make financially unaffordable child support installment payments. Ryan Everson, 42, was reportedly discovered unconscious inside his cell at the Clay County Jail on January 23 after being detained for ten days. Everson was arrested on suspicion of owing $30,272 in unpaid child support for his children, who are now ages 17, 19, and 20.
Although his family was informed that he took his own life in jail, they contend that the staff failed to give Everson medical attention after he started having seizures and was left alone in his cell. Investigations are currently being conducted into Everson's death, the third at the facility in the previous 21 months, as per The Kansas Star.
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Who was Ryan Everson?
On January 12, Ryan Everson, 42, was arrested for one count of failing to pay child support, a class E felony. He was discovered in his cell unresponsive shortly after midnight. According to Clay County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Sarah Boyd, detention officials attempted to use an automatic external defibrillator and performed CPR on the inmate but were unsuccessful. According to Boyd, Everson's death appeared to be a suicide. The investigation team for the sheriff is looking into the matter, as per AOL.
What did Everson's family say?
Everson's family claims that the criminal justice system put the father-of-three in a hopeless predicament because he was unable to pay even the $50 in monthly child support installments that the judge had ordered him to pay despite the fact that his bond was set at $10,000. According to family members who spoke to the Star, Everson, a former carpenter, battled addiction in the last few years of his life. He was sleeping on friends' couches and in an abandoned house at the time of his arrest and had no work or vehicle.
'The justice system is set up for the privileged'
His children and ex-wife Shawna Almendarez told the Star that he attempted to be as present in their lives as he could despite his financial difficulties. Almendarez stated that she opposed his imprisonment and accepted the fact that his drug addiction made it impossible for him to make child support payments. "The justice system is set up for the privileged," Everson's sister Erin Swart remarked to the media source. The family feels that the county's choices to issue a warrant in the underlying child support case, set a $10,000 bond, and lock Everson in jail without the therapy he need, failed him and his children at every turn.
'He loved his kids'
Prosecutors said that Everson owed $30,272 in Alaska and had skipped $600 in payments in Missouri, according to court records. After his ex-wife relocated to Missouri in 2015, he moved there to be close to his children. "He loved his kids and he wanted to try to be near them," Almendarez stated. "If anything, he didn’t love himself ... but he loved his kids."
What did attorney Alexander Higginbotham say?
Everson was taken into custody after a warrant for his arrest was issued for his failure to appear in court. Clay County prosecutors told the Star in a number of interviews that they issued both a summons and a warrant, which Everson disregarded. Three days before he died, his bond was reduced to $5,000, but Everson's family said he still couldn't afford that amount. Additionally, according to reports, Everson was unrepresented at his bond hearing. "Our goal is the collection of child support for the children of Clay County, so incarceration is always the last resort as resolution of a child support case," Clay County assistant prosecuting attorney Alexander Higginbotham stated. "A wide range of actions, including administrative enforcement, civil contempt filings, and lastly criminal probation, are attempted before noncustodial parents are sentenced to jail or prison on a child support case in Clay County."
Everson did not appear upset
Everson did not appear upset or at risk of suicide during a medical evaluation when he was booked, according to jail officials, who also told the media outlet that he was not under surveillance. His family has subsequently launched a GoFundMe to pay for funeral costs and any legal services they need as they seek clarification. The Star claims that Everson's brother Noel intends to scatter his ashes in Hawaii, where he will be getting married, and to which Everson had committed to traveling to when he was alive.