Wellpath LLC

The State reported on the lawsuit filed on July 25 against the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department which claims they released a man with diarrhea and mobility issues on a cold January night after delaying his medical care for nearly two months.

Cody Smith began an ongoing two-month struggle with receiving proper medical care after his arrest and being booked into the Lexington County Detention Center in November 2023.

Smith was booked into the detention center on November 17, 2023, and was released two months later while experiencing “severe diarrhea, difficulty walking, and altered mental status.” After finding blood in his stool, he spent two months requesting medical care. The lawsuit indicates that Smith had refused a medical appointment in December, but after going just 13 days later, “he couldn’t even really function and wasn’t really in his right mind.”

His roommate spoke out and said that he was so weak, he couldn’t stand in the shower. “He’d sit in the shower for hours on end. He couldn’t get out… Nobody was paying attention. Nobody was helping him.”

Smith had a “known history of I.V. Drug [use] and multiple sexual partners” but wasn’t tested for HIV in his medical screening. If he had been tested earlier, the disease could’ve been caught earlier, allowing him to avoid long-term health effects.

Smith was released into the cold night without a coat on January 17 and was later found by a correctional officer on the ground outside the detention center, unable to walk. Smith’s father soon picked him up and took him to get medical treatment. This was when Smith was diagnosed with HIV encephalitis, which can cause cognitive issues like memory loss and motor dysfunction. A spokesman from the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Lexington County has used the same Nashville-based commercial health care provider, Wellpath LLC, for three consecutive years. This large corporation provides health care in jails and prisons across 37 states, at a price tag of around $5 million annually.

This is not the first time that the company, Wellpath Holdings, Inc., has been accused of denying and delaying medical care for detainees.

The company filed for bankruptcy in December of last year in an attempt to shed dozens of lawsuits related to medical malpractice within the prisons and jails it serves.

In April 2025, it agreed to a $15.5 million settlement for creditors and claimants. A 2019 CNN investigation revealed that its former company, Correct Care Solutions, had been implicated in lawsuits connected to over 70 jail deaths.