Echols’ ties to health firm questioned

Jessie Christopher Smith

The Oklahoman USA TODAY NETWORK

Company he started facing suits

The Republican candidate for attorney general is facing growing criticism from Oklahoma families and civil rights attorneys, who are raising questions about his continued ties to a controversial company he cofounded.

TK Health, which Jon Echols helped launch as Turn Key Health Clinics, is contracted to provide medical care in detention centers throughout Oklahoma and other states. Dozens of lawsuits have accused the company of providing inadequate care and violating the constitutional rights of inmates.

Lawyers and families of people who died in jail custody have expressed doubt about whether Echols would be willing to pursue prosecution against employees of a company he helped start, should a case ever rise to that level. Echols holds a minority ownership interest in TK, according to financial disclosures.

“So many dozens of families that are going through this would not have to be going through it if just minimum standards were being met,” said attorney Dan Smolen, with the Tulsa-based Smolen and Roytman law firm. “I’m deeply concerned about the fact that Jon Echols is running for attorney general of our state and has deep, deep connections with this company that’s been responsible for, and ultimately failed to provide,

constitutionally adequate health care.”

Smolen made the remarks during a Monday, Sept. 21, news conference that also featured Echols’ Democratic opponent, Nick Coffey. Smolen and Cameron Spradling, the civil rights attorneys who organized the news conference, have both contributed to Coffey’s campaign.

In separate statements, TK Health and Echols’ campaign manager initially said his ownership stake amounted to 5% of the company and he is not involved in its day-to-day operations. Both later followed up with The Oklahoman and said Echols actually owned closer to 2% of the company.

Kenna Griffin, director of communications and development for TK Health, said the company couldn’t comment on ongoing litigation or discuss a specific patient’s health care, citing privacy rights.

“We do urge people to remember that filings contain allegations, not established facts,” Griffin said. “It’s disheartening to see attorneys trying to litigate these cases in the media while being legally bound in ways that keep us from defending our team members and organization.”

Smolen represents Daniel Hanchett, husband of the late Shannon Hanchett, a Norman baker who died in Cleveland County jail custody during December 2022. A federal lawsuit against Cleveland County and TK Health alleged that county jail and medical staffers subjected her to “deliberate indifference” and unconstitutional living conditions during a fatal 11-day stay at the jail.

An investigation uncovered that Shannon Hanchett had remained on the empty cell floor for days, mostly naked and in deep psychosis. Jail records showed an off-site Turn Key nurse practitioner had instructed the jail nurse to give her some Gatorade, but her pulse had weakened and she was unable to stand and dress herself, the lawsuit alleged.

Cleveland County officials recently agreed to a partial settlement of $20 million to Shannon Hanchett’s family, but her husband is hoping for further accountability.

“We are also still pushing for criminal charges to be brought against the bad actors in Shannon’s case,” Daniel Hanchett said at the news conference. “I’m concerned that if Mr. Echols is elected, there will not be any accountability, considering many of these people are his employees or former employees.”

Spradling, an Oklahoma City-based civil rights attorney, is representing Sue Gonzalez, who was also present at the news conference. Gonzalez sued Oklahoma County authorities and TK Health after her 39-year-old son, Luis Gonzalez, was found unresponsive at the Oklahoma County jail following a welfare check in December 2022.

“Two days before he passed away, he called me and told me, ‘Mama, you need to get some money on my books or they’re gonna kill me,’” Sue Gonzalez said of her son. “He knew because he was diabetic and insulin-dependent, and they had control over his life. … Because if his blood sugar dropped and he didn’t have any food, he was gonna die, and that’s exactly what happened.”

Spradling said he and Smolen have seen video recordings and other evidence in their cases but not yet available to the public that allegedly show “the chaos and the cruelty” within the jails and with TK Health. Spradling claimed that the settlements occur to keep damning evidence from going before a jury and receiving media attention.

“We are here today because we are warning Oklahoma that a man who founded such a company that caused so many deaths cannot become Oklahoma’s chief law enforcement officer and becomes a shield for that company,” Spradling said.

Coffey said the attorney general’s office has the duty to investigate and prosecute civil rights violations.

“Will Jon Echols do that? Will he prosecute his own employees? I don’t think so,” Coffey said.

Echols’ campaign manager Isaac Hadam said Coffey and the civil rights lawyers were trying to distract from what he described as a “liberal” agenda.

“Nick Coffey and the liberal attorneys working on his behalf are grasping at straws, attacking Jon for a company he has been a minority owner of since 2019 and currently less than 2% and over cases he has nothing to do with,”Hadam said.

“We do urge people to remember that filings contain allegations, not established facts.”

Kenna Griffin

TK Health

Sue Gonzalez, mother of Luis Gonzalez, an Oklahoma County jail death detainee who died a few years ago, Daniel Hanchett, widowed husband of Cleveland County jail death victim Shannon Hanchett, attorney Cameron Spradling and attorney Dan Smolen speak to the media as a group of concerned Oklahomans including Turn Key Health victims’ family members and attorneys hold a news conference in Oklahoma City on Sept. 21.

DOUG HOKE/THE OKLAHOMAN