Indiana law defines the county sheriff’s duties. One of those duties is to “take care of the county jail and the prisoners there.”
Indiana State Police arrested William B. Anderson on April 6, 2021, on drug charges, including heroin possession. They took him to Sheriff Bill Redman’s county jail. There, Anderson told the arresting officer about his drug use and said he was afraid of withdrawal, according to the lawsuit his estate later filed.
Anderson died five days later.
Anderson’s estate sued Redman, the county, the jail’s warden, and jail staff in federal court. It accused the jail’s supervisors of failing to train and supervise the people under them. In May 2026, the county agreed to pay $695,000 to settle the case.
Redman is now running for county commissioner on what his campaign calls decades of experience managing large operations and budgets.
The jail was one of those operations.
In an August 2023 ruling, U.S. District Judge Damon R. Leichty detailed the estate’s allegations about Anderson’s treatment in the jail.
Anderson stood five feet six inches and weighed about 120 pounds at booking. The jail’s own intake questionnaire recorded an addiction to heroin and pills, blackouts, and visible signs of withdrawal.
A nurse asked that he be moved for medical observation. He went to a suicide watch cell. Staff tried once to learn whether he was a methadone patient and got no answer. The same nurse, a licensed practical nurse, wrote him a prescription for an anti-nausea drug that required a doctor’s authorization. The jail’s medical director signed it two days later. The complaint said there was no evidence the doctor ever examined Anderson.
That first evening, April 6, Anderson refused dinner and threw up several times. At 9:21 p.m., a jail employee wrote that he was “detoxing and throwing up” and that he “just wants to go to the hospital.”
Anderson remained in his cell.
Jail policy required staff to check on him every 15 minutes. The complaint alleged they failed to conduct those checks on April 7 and April 8.
On the morning of April 8, Anderson was found face down on his bench, pale, without a pulse, and not breathing. Firefighters noted he was severely malnourished and bruised in multiple stages of healing. At Memorial Hospital he weighed 89 pounds. Life support was removed April 11. A postmortem examination found he died of complications of drug withdrawal, including dehydration.
Leichty dismissed the claims against the jail’s doctor but allowed the claims against the nurse to proceed. He called the missed observation checks “plausibly critical.”
The case never reached a jury.
Under the settlement, St. Joseph County agreed to pay $695,000: $445,000 to Anderson’s estate and its lawyers, and $250,000 toward an annuity for his young son.
The Board of Commissioners approved the settlement 3-0 on May 26.
Redman is now seeking a seat on the same board that approved the settlement.
Redman’s campaign site says “Bill knows how to lead through growth and crisis.”
William Anderson asked to go to the hospital on April 6.
He got there two days later, without a pulse.
Logan Foster
Logan Foster is the founder and editor of Redress South Bend, an independent news outlet covering local government, courts, and public institutions in South Bend and St. Joseph County, Indiana. He reports from primary documents: public records requests, court filings, state audit reports, and campaign finance disclosures. His reporting has examined city and school district payments made without competitive bidding, school board spending, and the records of candidates in county races. Redress South Bend obtained the South Bend Police Department's ShotSpotter coverage map after the department initially denied public access. The outlet is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Online News Association. Reach him at info@redresssouthbend.com
