The Rockingham County Board of Commissioners agreed Friday that Sheriff Sam Page and his department should make transparency a goal after the sheriff’s office’s insurance company dropped him as a client.
Now Rockingham County officials have less than a month to secure a new insurer for Page’s office, which they say will be an uphill battle and come with a higher price tag for taxpayers.
Chris Elliott, the county’s safety and risk manager, gave commissioners an update Friday, saying he has no idea what a new insurance policy might look like for Page’s office, but he hopes to give them something in the next two weeks can offer.
Page declined to comment in detail on the case after The News & Observer broke the news Tuesday that the sheriff’s office had lost its insurance. But on Friday, he answered questions from commissioners during an annual budget meeting.
The conversation turned testy, with Page and district officials talking over each other, with Page defending his office and blaming Elliott.
But the commissioners didn’t just leave Page alone.
They first tried to broach the subject with Page by asking about his goals for the year. But before any of the commissioners could finish his sentence, Page interrupted and asked Colonel Gray Smith, who runs the prison, for a document that Smith had in a blue folder.
This included the media statement that Page released on Wednesday in response to questions about the lapsed insurance. The statement instead addressed an ongoing lawsuit filed by the family of Kyle Kepley, who died by suicide in prison in 2022. Page said he took “all allegations” seriously, but added that it would be inappropriate to make any public comment about the case.
While preparing for trial, The Travelers Companies, Page’s soon-to-be former insurer, provided information to Elliott that he says was the first he and county officials heard about several incidents at the jail.
Unreported incidents
Page said the insurance company never asked him or Smith for any paperwork related to any incidents until May 20.
“I know we asked for it,” said Charlie Hall, chairman of the board.
Page said the insurance company normally waits until a lawsuit occurs to ask for a packet of information, but he will heed their request and start providing that information on the front end.
“Well, I’m worried about progress; they’re asking for the same thing we’ve been asking for for a while,” Hall said.
Hall said he understands the insurance company has more authority behind their request. But Hall said he wanted staff to know that commissioners had made the same requests and that there were times when they were still unaware of incidents at the jail.
Death notifications
Page defended his department and said there was a method in place to notify the right people.
That includes the chief deputy notifying the county safety and risk manager and the district manager by telephone, the jail administrator notifying the Department of Health and Human Services and filing a standardized death notification form within five days.
The chief of investigators shall notify the State Bureau of Investigation and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Family is also being notified, although he did not share who is making that notification.
Next, Page and his spokesman, Kevin Suthard, are working to inform the public, Page said.
“In the past 25 years, there has never been a direct reporting request made by our insurance company regarding inmate death reports,” Page said. “We rely on our risk and safety manager, Chris Elliott, to be our liaison with the insurance company for all notifications. With the most recent changes to our insurance carrier’s notice, we have agreed to honor these requests.”
Communication in prison
Elliott defended himself, saying he told Col. Alan Farrar in October 2023 that he only learned about a death in the prison from a news outlet that asked him for information.
“And at that point I told him there were issues with state guidelines and issues with insurance that I couldn’t handle,” Elliott said.
At the time, Page, a Republican, was running for lieutenant governor. He lost in the March primary.
Elliott added that communication improved after Smith took over the jail on April 2.
“Everything that happened in the prison was done perfectly,” Elliott said of the time Smith took over. “Stellar communications. And I can’t say that about what got us into this issue as we stand here today.”
Page told Elliott that he could have called him to ask if there were any problems at the jail, but the commissioners immediately intervened, saying that it is not Elliott’s job to anticipate when something will happen at the jail, and since Page and his staff are aware of those incidents, it is their job to tell Elliott.
Hall said he was on the receiving end of Page refusing to provide information about prison incidents, claiming it was a personal matter. But he told Page there is a way to notify them of incidents at the jail without violating personnel laws.
One of the problems Travelers discovered while preparing for the Kepley trial was an allegation that a prison guard had sex with inmates outside the prison, according to a response to a public records request from The News & Observer. That prison guard has since been fired, but is a defendant in the lawsuit. It was not reported to county officials, according to an email from Elliott.
“It’s not the deaths in the jail, it’s the failure of communication, but the communication has to come from you to the risk manager,” Commissioner Kevin Berger said as Page tried to talk over him. “He doesn’t have to call you about an incident in your department.”
After Page left, commissioners agreed to add “transparency” and “communication” to the Department of Public Safety’s mission to ensure Page creates a goal to be more transparent in the future.
