Commission: Inmate's medical bill not county's to forgive

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- The Mississippi County Commission has turned down a second request for a jail debt forgiveness.

The most recent request to forgive a debt owed by a former inmate of the Mississippi County Detention Center came from Angela Phillips of Cape Girardeau County on behalf of her husband, Daniel Phillips, during the commission's regular weekly meeting Thursday.

"He was incarcerated in Mississippi County back in April of 2005," Phillips said. "He was assaulted by another inmate and incurred $16,892 in medical bills."

Owens said her husband, serving a sentence on charges filed in Scott County for statutory rape, was watching television when Brice Owens of East Prairie, Missouri, struck him from behind, breaking Phillips' jaw in several places.

"He has a metal plate in his chin," she said. "He had his mouth wired shut for eight weeks. ... He spent two days in the hospital."

Phillips now suffers from high blood pressure, his wife said, "and his wisdom teeth came in in pieces."

Owens ultimately pleaded guilty to third-degree assault.

Phillips said her husband was told by Mississippi County Prosecutor Darren Cann if her husband pressed charges against Owens, the attacker would be ordered to pay the medical bills instead of them.

"We were shocked that the medical bills were on there," Phillips said. "Darren told him we wouldn't be responsible for the medical bills."

Instead, the bills were added to costs the Phillipses would need to pay to stay out of jail, she said.

"Right now that's the only thing keeping him on probation -- the medical bills," Phillips said. "If we take the medical bills off, it's almost completely paid."

"I don't believe that this is the place for you to come," Presiding Commissioner Carlin Bennett said. "As I stated ... when we got the first of these things from Judge Dolan, we are not empowered to vacate a court order -- it really has nothing to do with us."

A similar request was brought to the commissioners during their March 12 meeting when a Sikeston, Missouri, man asked them to reduce or forgive the $2,900 owed to the county for his stay in the Mississippi County Detention Center.

"We are not going to get into the business of forgiving debt to the county," Bennett said. "I just don't want to set a precedent for us beginning to do this. I just don't think this is the proper venue for this."

Commissioners said they don't understand why former inmates have started appearing before them asking for debt forgiveness when in the past the judge has handled it.