Oklahoma County Jail omits report to OSDH on teen who left their custody with a traumatic brain injury

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – The Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) confirms the Oklahoma County Jail never produced an incident report on 18-year-old Antonio Hendricks, who left the custody of the jail with a traumatic brain injury in October.

"Clearly something happened while he was there, whether it was facility-related or whether it was staff-related or another inmate or some other medical episode, something happened," said Spencer Bryan, Hendricks' attorney.

KFOR first reported this story weeks ago.

Bryan says that despite mandatory reporting laws, the State Department of Health had no report from the jail about his client.

“Anytime we start investigating something that happened inside a jail, oftentimes we'll reach out to the state department of health to get what's called a jail incident report, which is mandatory reporting established by the Oklahoma Administrative Code or the jail standards," Bryan said. "When we got a response from the Department of Health. It was surprising because the only thing that they had in this particular circumstance was the story that was done originally on Mr. Hendricks, which, quite honestly, I have never seen that in 20-plus years of doing jail and prison litigation."

The Department of Health confirmed that they learned about what happened to Hendricks through our reporting.

"The OSDH will investigate this incident during the next inspection to review the facility’s actions as they relate to the 'Jail Standards Act.' If the alleged incident is substantiated, the facility will be cited for failure to report. We can confirm that OSDH had no prior record or report of this incident before it was publicly disclosed on the news. At this time, OSDH is unable to provide any additional facts or details concerning the alleged incident due to the pending investigation," said OSDH External Affairs Manager, Erica Rankin-Riley.

Bryan explained, the lack of reporting is just another red flag in this case.

"This reporting requirement is very loosely enforced, which is problematic because the State Department of Health is charged with investigating incidents that happen inside these facilities, and if they don't know that they happen, then there's no investigation," he said.

In a previous update from the jail's Communication Director, Mark Opgrande, he said the investigation had been turned over to the Oklahoma County District Attorney's Office. When KFOR asked the DA's Office about the case, we were told they hadn't received anything in connection with Hendricks.

Opgrande clarified today that the jail's Internal Affairs Division is still investigating.

When asked about the missing incident report, the jail declined to comment due to the ongoing investigation.

Clovia Long, Hendricks' mother, says he is now awake, but he has a long recovery ahead of him.

"When I went to visit him, he was doing pretty good. He was sitting up. He still can't walk on his own and hasn't been able to talk much. He says, 'Mama, no,' and for the majority, his communications are shaking his head yes or no or snapping his fingers," Long said.

But when it comes to answers, Hendricks' family and his attorney still don't have any.

"I feel as though that they're ducking in their responsibility with Antonio, but I will find out what happened," said Long.