Corey Chesney said he was able to walk fine when he was booked into the Weber County jail in April 2024. Sixteen months later, he’s still an inmate there, and said he depends on a wheelchair.
Civil rights attorney April Hollingsworth filed a notice of claim against the county July 23 on behalf of Chesney, 38, alleging her client has faced mobility impairment, poor treatment and religious discrimination — and has been made unable to walk on his own in the Weber County jail.
In a statement released Thursday, the Weber County Sheriff’s Office acknowledged receiving the notice of claim. The office said that it “maintains that the allegations outlined in the notice are inaccurate and do not reflect the facts of Mr. Chesney’s incarceration.”
Chesney has been in jail for more than a year facing charges of possession with the intent to distribute a classified substance, and possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person — both second-degree felonies — as well as the use or possession of drug paraphernalia, a class B misdemeanor. His case is being considered in Utah 2nd District Court by Judge Reuben J. Renstrom.
But facing alleged cruelty from deputies in the jail, he said he’s tried for almost a year to get someone to help him — writing letters to civil rights groups, friends, family and attorneys.
It wasn’t until late April that his message finally reached Hollingsworth, who got involved after Chesney asked a friend for help, and that friend’s mom reached out to attorneys.
The experiences he described were brutal, the attorney said.
“I was kind of like, ‘Can this possibly be real?’ Because if it’s real, this is horrible,” Hollingsworth said. “I need to do something.”
Under Utah law, Hollingsworth said she must wait 60 days from the date she filed the notice of claim before filing a lawsuit against Weber County. Those 60 days run out on Sept. 22.
Chesney’s time in jail
Chesney’s current stay in the Weber County facility is not his first.
He first landed there in December 2022, after court documents say he chased and stabbed a man following an argument in Ogden’s Marshall White Park. He admitted to smoking marijuana that day, according to the charging document.
He pleaded no contest to third-degree felony assault and in July 2023 was sentenced to 36 months probation, a suspended prison sentence, a $600 fine and 150 days in jail, for which he was given credit for time he had already served.
During that time, he told The Salt Lake Tribune in a call from jail, he was first treated poorly by the staff. He said he reported that mistreatment to the sheriff’s office.
In April 2024, after he was arrested for allegedly possessing and intending to distribute methamphetamine, he said the guards already knew who he was, and they knew he was Jewish and homeless. He said he believes jail employees thought it would be easy to single him out.
“There was a rising attitude of antisemitism in this jail,” he said. “Who’s going to help a homeless guy?”
In the notice of claim, Hollingsworth said jail staff haven’t provided him means to pray in accordance with his religion — and do not respect his kosher diet. In one instance, Chesney said a deputy ate a bag of pork rinds before sticking his hands in Chesney’s food, defiling it.
Because he wanted to adhere to the dietary restrictions of his faith, Hollingsworth wrote in the notice of claim that Chesney abstained from eating and lost weight. Deputies, it further explains, said medical staff wanted him to be weighed.
After initially declining to be weighed, Hollingsworth wrote that deputies became forceful on July 26, 2024, and that Chesney began having back spasms afterward.
“Mr. Chesney has been unable to walk since this incident,” the notice of claim says.
Hollingsworth’s notice further explains that he was able to get into the bed of a cell and alleges that a deputy didn’t listen to his pleas for medical attention.
He tried to climb onto a sink, the notice says, only to fall after another back spasm, and he landed face-down on the floor.
For weeks, Hollingsworth said in the notice, he was left on the floor and covered in his own waste as he was physically unable to use a toilet.
“They left me laying in my own piss and sh-- for over a month, man,” Chesney wrote in a hand-written letter to the judge, written July 20. “That’s traumatizing.”
Hollingsworth said she relied on Chesney’s records for the dates presented in her notice of claim.
A few weeks before it says he hurt his back, his defense attorneys asked the judge to evaluate Chesney’s competency, which he agreed to do on July 9.
A competency evaluation filed by Chesney’s defense — regarding an attempted June 26, 2024, visit between Chesney and a psychiatrist — seems to describe similarities to what the notice of claim says Chesney faced a month later after hurting his back.
“Mr. Chesney was lodged on the Suicide Watch unit at the Weber County Correctional Facility and was unable or unwilling to engage in a conversation regarding his case,” the court document says. “Mr. Chesney was reported to be on a ‘hunger strike,’ as well as smearing his feces on the walls and urinating on his food trays, reportedly making attempts to throw the urine at the guards.”
If the notice of claim is describing the same event on a different date, Hollingsworth said the discrepancy will become apparent as she continues to gather records.
On August 19, 2024, the same day Hollingsworth wrote Chesney was taken to the Pleasant View Emergency Room and “CT scans confirmed his back injury,” court documents show he had another competency evaluation.
On Sept. 3, 2024, court documents say he was sent to the Utah State Hospital for “restoration services.”
While in the hospital on Oct. 9, Utah County prosecutors allege he needed to be moved into a seclusion chair to be cleaned. When officers tried to move him, they say he resisted and bit three officers’ fingers and scratched two others. Prosecutors have charged him with five class A misdemeanors.
After a private certification of competency was filed with the court on Nov. 11, 2024, Chesney was booked back into the jail.
According to Hollingsworth, Chesney remains dependent on a wheelchair.
The Weber County Sheriff’s Office, in its statement Thursday, said Chesney “has been housed at the Weber County Correctional Facility in accordance with established policies, professional correctional standards, and applicable laws.”
The statement said that everyone in custody is “provided access to appropriate medical care through a contracted medical provider, religious accommodations, and other services consistent with their custody level and classification.”
Because of the pending litigation, the sheriff’s office said it would not make further comment.
What happens next
Hollingsworth said since filing the notice of claim, she has yet to hear back from the county.
Since Hollingsworth sent the notice, Chesney said he has received threats and other maltreatment from jail staff.
He said he got a notice under his door that his religious diet accommodations were being cancelled, and deputies took his tablet that inmates use to communicate.
Hollingsworth said she believes the jail has previously taken steps to prevent her from communicating with him.
While traveling to a July appointment she had scheduled with Chesney, she said she got a message saying her scheduled meeting room was only for criminal defense attorneys.
“They know I’m a civil rights attorney,” she said. “They knew exactly what was going on.”
She said she left a frustrated message with the county attorney, and Chesney outlined the situation in his July 20 letter to the judge.
“Jail staff refused to allow her in to see me, and therefore illegally denied me my right to meet with my civil rights attorney,” he wrote. “The abuse and medical neglect here is ongoing and I need to be able to meet with Miss Hollingsworth. Please help.”
Hollingsworth said they were able to meet after, but not before she needed to file the notice of claim.
On Wednesday evening, Hollingsworth received a call from another jail inmate who said he called her after Chesney, in pain, screamed out her number.
In the background, she said she could hear Chesney “screaming about his back, for them to leave him alone and to get him a paramedic.”
On Thursday evening, Hollingsworth said she got another call from an inmate, who said Chesney was on suicide watch and couldn’t get from his wheelchair to the toilet.
“The inmate said he’s been begging for medical attention and they won’t give him any,” she said.
Though she said Chesney is being held without bail, Hollingsworth said she has wondered about the prospect of him being released. She said she isn’t sure that Chesney, a drifter confined to a wheelchair without a home, would have anyone he could rely on.