Lawsuit alleges HIV-positive inmate died after being denied medication at Northern California jail

The family of a man who died after being held in a California jail alleges in a lawsuit that he contracted a preventable viral infection there when its medical staff denied him critical HIV medication for two months. The court filing says that when Nicholas Overfield was arrested in February 2022, he told officers he was HIV-positive and required antiretroviral medication. But the lawsuit filed last week says he was never given the medicine during his entire incarceration. He was eventually released and died that June in hospice care. The suit names a local county and the jail’s contracted healthcare provider. Neither responded to emails seeking comment.