Virginia agency paid nearly $900K for legal defense effort in Irvo Otieno case
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – The state agency overseeing the Virginia-run mental hospital where Irvo Otieno died while in custody paid nearly $900,000 for the legal defense of a former hospital worker acquitted in the 2023 death. The Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Development Services (DBHDS) will end up paying more than $872,000 to the legal team of Wavie Jones, a former security employee at Central State Hospital who was found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter in Otieno’s death, records provided by DBHDS show. Otieno, a 28-year-old Black man, died on March 6, 2023, in an admissions suite at Central State Hospital while in custody of Henrico County sheriff’s deputies. His death led to outrage and a push for mental health reforms in Virginia after a video of it was released last year. Jones’s defense attorneys -- Doug Ramseur and Emilee Hasbrouck with the Richmond-based Ram Law Firm -- argued that Jones didn’t put his body weight down on Otieno when he died with a group of Henrico County sheriff’s deputies and hospital workers restraining him on the floor of an admissions suite at Central State. New videos shed light on Irvo Otieno’s time at Henrico hospital and jail before in-custody death They also challenged the state medical examiner’s view on the cause of death, disputing that Otieno suffocated to death and instead arguing that he died of a sudden cardiac event. The involuntary manslaughter trial for Jones lasted four days. In under 30 minutes, a Dinwiddie County jury found Jones not guilty. The DBHDS, using funds to support Jones’s legal defense, first reported by WTVR, was brought up after the verdict. After the ruling, Ramseur thanked the department and its commissioner, Nelson Smith, outside the Dinwiddie courthouse for giving “their support to a low-level employee who got wrongfully charged with murder.” “And they said, you know what, he was a state employee and we’re going to make sure he gets representation so they can come in and prove this and prove that he was wrongfully charged,” he said, declining to answer follow-ups about whether the agency funded Jones’s defense. Former hospital worker found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter in Irvo Otieno’s 2023 in-custody death Records show that DBHDS started its payments to the Ram Law Firm for Jones's defense on June 7, 2023, with $693,433 already paid to the firm and a nearly $179,000 payment still pending. DBHDS declined to comment. Otieno's family repeated their calls for federal prosecutors to get involved in the case -- there are two active involuntary manslaughter charges against two Henrico sheriff's deputies -- after Jones was acquitted. Federal prosecutors have not indicated that any such effort would occur.
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RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – The state agency overseeing the Virginia-run mental hospital where Irvo Otieno died while in custody paid nearly $900,000 for the legal defense of a former hospital worker acquitted in the 2023 death.
The Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Development Services (DBHDS) will end up paying more than $872,000 to the legal team of Wavie Jones, a former security employee at Central State Hospital who was found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter in Otieno’s death, records provided by DBHDS show.
Otieno, a 28-year-old Black man, died on March 6, 2023, in an admissions suite at Central State Hospital while in custody of Henrico County sheriff’s deputies. His death led to outrage and a push for mental health reforms in Virginia after a video of it was released last year.
Jones’s defense attorneys -- Doug Ramseur and Emilee Hasbrouck with the Richmond-based Ram Law Firm -- argued that Jones didn’t put his body weight down on Otieno when he died with a group of Henrico County sheriff’s deputies and hospital workers restraining him on the floor of an admissions suite at Central State.
New videos shed light on Irvo Otieno’s time at Henrico hospital and jail before in-custody death
They also challenged the state medical examiner’s view on the cause of death, disputing that Otieno suffocated to death and instead arguing that he died of a sudden cardiac event.
The involuntary manslaughter trial for Jones lasted four days. In under 30 minutes, a Dinwiddie County jury found Jones not guilty.
The DBHDS, using funds to support Jones’s legal defense, first reported by WTVR, was brought up after the verdict. After the ruling, Ramseur thanked the department and its commissioner, Nelson Smith, outside the Dinwiddie courthouse for giving “their support to a low-level employee who got wrongfully charged with murder.”
“And they said, you know what, he was a state employee and we’re going to make sure he gets representation so they can come in and prove this and prove that he was wrongfully charged,” he said, declining to answer follow-ups about whether the agency funded Jones’s defense.
Records show that DBHDS started its payments to the Ram Law Firm for Jones's defense on June 7, 2023, with $693,433 already paid to the firm and a nearly $179,000 payment still pending. DBHDS declined to comment.
Otieno's family repeated their calls for federal prosecutors to get involved in the case -- there are two active involuntary manslaughter charges against two Henrico sheriff's deputies -- after Jones was acquitted. Federal prosecutors have not indicated that any such effort would occur.
