Multnomah County jails reported 9 deaths in the past 2 years, more than the prior 7 years combined. Hurley’s sister wants to know more about the circumstances surrounding her brother’s death.
Editor's note: This story discusses drug use, mental illness and death.
"We're all dealt a different deck of cards sometimes," Vickie Hanson said. "I don't want other people to have to go through what I'm going through — and it's hard, you know.
“It's hard because I miss Kenny."
When Vickie came home from work the day before Thanksgiving last year, her husband, Bosko Hanson, told her she missed a phone call about her brother earlier in the day. When she returned the call, the voice on the other end was from the Multnomah County Medical Examiner’s Office, asking if she had a brother named Kenneth and to confirm his birthday.
"Then he just said that he passed away," Vickie said. "Oh, my god, it was hard. Because he was … he was homeless. He was also schizophrenic."
Kenneth Lynn Hurley, or “Kenny” as he was known to family and friends, died at age 55 in his cell at Multnomah County Detention Center, or MCDC, the morning of Nov. 19, 2022 — two days after he was booked into jail and four days before MCSO called his next of kin. From the first call, Vickie grew increasingly frustrated when her inquiries of authorities generated more questions than answers.
"I wasn't feeling comfortable with what I got," Vickie said.
Vickie’s discomfort compounded in recent months as reports on a recent spate of deaths trickled out. Multnomah County jails saw six deaths in a three-month span this year.
Oregon State Police arrested Kenny on a warrant for missing a routine check-in with his probation officer and booked him into Clackamas County Jail the morning of Nov. 16, 2022, according to jail records. He was serving three years of post-release probation after serving time for a 2017 first-degree burglary conviction.
"Which to me, a schizophrenic person, mentally ill, homeless," Vickie said. "Really? Are you going to pick somebody up and — I mean, I don't know."
Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office, or CCSO, evaluated Kenny upon his arrival but marked no issues with medical health, including fever, flu-like symptoms or contagious illness, according to the classification screening. The screening said Kenny had no medications or other mental health needs but said he had a wound on his arm and was “in with nurse,” according to a comment in the records. It also stated Kenny did not have health insurance.
CCSO policy states all adults in custody are to be medically screened by a deputy, asking direct questions related to their health before observing “objective symptoms,” including obvious injury or illness, manifestations of medical symptoms or problems, and signs of mental health issues.
“Once the initial screen is completed, all adults in custody are screened by medical staff prior to placement in a housing unit,” Ross Clemson, CCSO spokesperson, said.
Deputies transferred Kenny to MCDC just before noon Nov. 17.
Vickie said Kenny was generally good about taking his meds, and jails should know his history of mental illness.
“How often were they checking on him, if he had pneumonia?” Vickie said. “That just doesn't make sense to just die.”
The Multnomah County Medical Examiner lists Kenny’s cause of death as pneumonia due to influenza and rhinovirus/enterovirus, with cardiovascular disease and obstructive pulmonary disease as contributing conditions, according to records obtained by Street Roots.
"They didn't tell me he had breathing problems, or this or that, or they didn't say anything like that," Vickie said.
She said MCSO just told her they didn't know what happened and the toxicology report would take three to four months to complete.
Vickie said Kenny became homeless in 2021 after serving a stint at Deer Ridge Correctional Facility in Madras. Kenny received a suspended jail sentence and five years probation after pleading guilty to a first-degree burglary charge in 2017. Court records show a judge ultimately ordered him to serve the sentence at Deer Ridge in 2018 after repeated probation violations that did not rise to the level of criminal charges.
Kenny last visited Vickie at her house to celebrate his birthday, as he often did, five months prior to his death, June 10, 2022. Vickie gave him a t-shirt emblazoned with the Hurley family name and a little cash. Kenny told his sister his friend was selling a tent, and the money would help him buy it before cool weather started to set in.
They didn't talk much in the following months, but Vickie received a call from OHSU in early November 2022. A social worker from the hospital called to say Kenny came to the hospital Nov. 3, 2022, and needed reconstructive surgery to repair his face and nose after someone assaulted him near Lloyd Center.
"I didn't quite understand why they needed my permission," Vickie said. "But they said they did, and so I gave my permission for him to get surgery at OHSU."
In a phone call from the hospital, Kenny told his brother, Vickie and Bosko about the assault. He said someone tried to lure him around the corner to sell him meth, but Kenny told him he didn't want any. Vickie said Kenny smoked cigarettes regularly but didn’t think he was very interested in drugs.
Vickie noticed a change in his behavior after he landed on the streets in 2021 and thought he may have started using drugs.
"I suppose being out there on the streets, and if you don't have meds and everything, you take what makes you feel better," Vickie said.
Scant evidence of drug use shows up in any of Kenny’s court documents or medical records. Kenny’s death was not drug-related, according to the medical examiner. Olanzapine, an anti-psychotic used to treat schizophrenia, and levetiracetam, a medication commonly used to treat seizures, were present, according to the toxicology report. The report indicated the presence of cannabinoids but also stated the result could not be confirmed.
“No prescription medications, paraphernalia, or illicit drugs were located inside the cell during the (medical examiner’s) search,” the medical examiner found.
Family life
Kenny received a schizophrenia diagnosis in his early 20s. Vickie said he struggled to learn growing up, and they had to remind him about little things constantly. They always knew he had challenges, but no one close to him knew exactly why.
Vickie is the oldest of six siblings — Kenny being the youngest with a 17-year gap between them. They didn't grow up together, as Vickie and Bosko married in their teens and got their own place. Vickie remembers walking her brother around in a stroller alongside her son, who is just one year younger than Kenny. In his late teens, Kenny moved in with his sister and brother-in-law into their Glenwood home 35 miles outside Portland. From there, he worked toward his GED at Portland Community College's Rock Creek campus.
About six months in, things became difficult with Kenny, and he talked about hearing voices in his head. Around the same time, Vickie said their extended family faced a bit of drama. It was difficult on her daughter, who was in her early teens, and Kenny moved out of their country home and into supportive housing in Beaverton.
"But still, we just loved him to death," Vickie said. "I mean, there was nobody that really didn't care for Kenny. But you're right; if he wasn't on his meds the right way, he could be a little, you know, just different."
Kenny had a history of run-ins with the law but never any violent crimes, including trespass violations for breaking into an RV lot in 2019, sleeping in an SUV at a used car lot in 2018 and breaking into a West Hills home in 2017.
"Kenny is not a type of person that would hurt anybody," Vickie said. "He said to me that he was hungry and that he — that's why he broke in. I was just trying to say, ‘Well, Kenny, you can't break in people's houses.’"
The Hurley siblings grew up poor and faced struggles with addiction. Consequently, Kenny developed an instinct to help other people in need. He also wanted people to like him, and Vickie said the downside was that people could easily talk him into things. Anytime he came into money, he would give half of it away to people, according to Vickie.
"You don't have much, then you see someone that doesn't have anything, you want to help them too," she said. "That was how Kenny was."
Vickie is a substitute teacher in the Reynolds School District, teaching life skills to students with special needs. She sipped coffee through a short straw and spoke softly and patiently past the long hair draped over her shoulders. The carpet and walls in her east Portland apartment don bold greens and purples, and a small credenza displays framed and unframed photos of her family over the years.
Showing photos is like a walking tour of family grief. Vickie learned a few months ago that her brother, Mike Hurley, died of COVID-19 in Michigan a couple of years ago. A few years prior, her sister, Lila Sherbourne, died of a presumed heart attack, and about 10 years before that, her brother, Danny Hurley died of AIDS. Her only remaining brother has been in recovery in Portland, but Vickie worries he may have relapsed after learning of his brother's death.
"That's a big trigger for someone in recovery," she said.
Hospital to jail pipeline
After his Nov. 9, 2022, surgery, an OHSU nurse called to tell Vickie everything went according to plan. She visited her brother two days later. Vickie said he was restrained on his bed and seemed agitated and medicated when she visited him, and the nurse told her he had an episode during which he was lashing out.
"He wasn't happy," Vickie said. "He wanted out of there."
Vickie laughed as she told a story of Kenny in the hospital, responding to the nurse with derogatory quips about President Joe Biden. The nurse said he repeatedly made jokes about Biden during his time in the hospital bed.
"I'm thinking, ‘he's never even talked about presidents,’" Vickie said with a laugh.
That was the last time she saw him.
After a few days, OHSU released Kenny. Medical records show the primary team felt he was OK to leave after he tried to leave the hospital twice on his own.
“He is medically cleared (his pneumonia is resolved),” medical records said.
Vickie said an employee told her the hospital would find a place for him through a social worker. Kenny intended to go to the Union Gospel Mission after he left, according to the records.
Kenny spent periods of his life in supportive housing, where scheduled access to schizophrenia medication made a significant difference, according to Vickie. The family tried to convince Kenny to stay at OHSU to recover, but he became irritated and adamant about leaving and then hung up the phone.
"With schizophrenia, and if you don't have your medication, you want your cigarettes," Vickie said.
She asked OHSU not to release him, arguing he was homeless and had no place to go, to no avail. The next thing she heard about her brother was the phone call from MCSO a couple of weeks later, saying he died in jail.
The whole person
"I'm feeling for all the families, too, that have been through what we've been through," Vickie said of recent prisoner deaths in Multnomah County.
In the mid-90s, Vickie worked at Letty Owings Center, a program focusing on recovery and housing for young mothers. She worked the night shift with Katherine Shisler, and the two have maintained a close friendship ever since. They attend a bible study together to this day.
Incidentally, Shisler's son, Kashi Harmon, died at Multnomah County's Inverness Jail on June 21, after being held in jail for just six days.
"I met Kashi," Vickie said. "He was nice. I don't know much else about him, but my friend Katherine is one of my best friends."
Grieving process
At a recent Multnomah County Board briefing on the rise in deaths in local jails, Sheriff Nicole Morrisey-O'Donnell said MCSO offers support to survivors of those who died on its watch.
"Through our investigations, when the medical examiner is notifying family members, we connect them to the Trauma Intervention Program Northwest for those additional supports," O'Donnell said. "And they also will help identify additional resources for ongoing support."
Vickie said no one mentioned the resources available to her during calls about her brother’s death. Chris Liedle, MCSO communications director, said resources are generally requested or offered organically, typically during a conversation between a family member and a detective, but said O’Donnell recognizes the need for a more formal process.
“We will work within our office, and in collaboration with the medical examiner’s office, to improve access to resources to families impacted by a death in custody,” Liedle said.
Vickie said she is interested in connecting with others experiencing similar grief, but mostly, she wants justice for her brother and the others who died in the county's jails.
"I want justice for people," she said. "And right now, I'm just feeling that's not happening — accountability. It just seems like the system's failing us."
Vickie's questions remain unanswered, and she is left wondering why no cameras monitored her brother in jail. The medical examiner report said MCSO was gathering more information through interviews and video camera footage, but MCSO told Vickie there were no cameras in the cell.
Vickie wonders if jail staff knew of his schizophrenia diagnosis and how often they checked on him, considering he was sick with pneumonia and OHSU released him three days before his arrest.
"Why wasn't he put in a hospital instead of a jail if he was that sick?" she said. "And why did it take so long to call me?"
Asked what justice might look like, Vickie said she hopes people will consider the whole person. If a person struggles with their mental health, she said they need help from social workers. If they have a history of drug addiction or other medical issues, they need someone to help take care of those needs.
"If you're going to put someone in jail, make sure that there's a plan," she said. "I don't know if we help anybody by locking them up and doing whatever."
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