Injuries that claimed Michael Tharp’s life stemmed from 2000 prison fight
By Matt Donegan
Copy editor
Michael Tharp of Camden was never in trouble with the authorities until he turned 18, according to his mother, Darlene Sturdevant of Middletown.
It was at that age on Feb. 12, 1999, that he was arrested for stealing car stereos in the Sandtown area.
For the offense, he was sentenced to probation.
To ring in the new millennium 10 months later, Tharp fired a few shotgun blasts into the air. Police responded and found him to be in possession of two shotgun shells, a violation of his probation.
He was sentenced to the Sussex Violation of Probation (VOP) Center in Georgetown in February 2000. On April 9 that year, after three months in prison, Tharp, then 19, got into a fight with another inmate.
Though Tharp’s family has heard many stories of what happened during the altercation, the only thing they know for sure is that, as his mother put it, is “he went to prison and never made it out a whole person.”
Injuries sustained from the fight put Tharp in a vegetative state, said his sister, Laura Price of Middletown.
“He couldn’t eat. He couldn’t talk. He couldn’t move, other than involuntary movements. He couldn’t hold his own head up,” she said.
On Aug. 14 of this year, Tharp, 24, died of complications stemming from injuries sustained in the fight.
Sturdevant now said she plans on filing a wrongful death suit against the state and said she will seek the help of a lawyer.
Michael – “A mommy’s baby”
“He was a good guy no matter how bad things was,” said another of Tharp’s sisters, Mary Pritchard of Hartly. “Everybody looked up to him. He meant a lot to a lot of people. I’ve never met anyone like him.”
But Price described Tharp, who dropped out of Caesar Rodney High School during 10th grade, as “a little wild.”
At 18 and living on and off with his girlfriend in the Camden trailer where he grew up, Tharp was into drinking and smoking pot, even though he had just become father to newborn Michaela, who lived with Tharp’s mother from the time she was born.
“You can’t help what your kids do,” Sturdevant said. “I did everything I could besides tie him up, put him in the car and drop him off at rehab.”
On March 13, 1998, Tharp was arrested for possession of an intravenous needle. Twice that year he was arrested for driving without a license or vehicle insurance, and in December he was charged with assault and offensive touching.
Even with the “crazy things” Tharp did, Sturdevant said, the entire family recalls that he had a good heart.
While driving his beat up, multi-colored “clown truck” after an ice storm, Tharp spotted a state trooper stuck in a field. Though he had no license or insurance, Tharp towed the trooper’s vehicle out of the field. When the officer’s car dinged Tharp’s bumper, the trooper insisted the state reimburse Tharp for the damage. Fully aware he was on the road illegally, Tharp declined the offer and drove away, satisfied to have helped.
This was the type of person Tharp was, agreed his family during an interview Aug. 25, remembering him as “a lady catcher,” comedian, and the glue that held the family together.
When Tharp was arrested for theft in 1999, Sturdevant said she felt embarrassed. Pritchard said the vehicle break-ins were the result of her brother running with the wrong crowd.
Even in light of the charges, Sturdevant said, her son was always “a mommy’s baby.”
The fight that shook the family
On April 8, Tharp spoke with his mother on the phone from VOP as he did every day. He was upset because, according to Sturdevant, he said the guards were beating inmates.
It was the last conversation she would ever have with her son.
Tharp never mentioned having any problems with any of his fellow prisoners, Sturdevant said, adding that he would’ve told her if he was having trouble with anyone.
Exactly what transpired the next day remains unclear. According to DOC spokeswoman Beth Welch, cameras in DOC facilities show only live feeds and don’t record anything, so there are no tapes that could be checked to see what happened.
According to Sturdevant, investigators said her son picked a fight with “the biggest black guy” he could find in his housing unit, 28-year old Anthony L. Gaines of Wilmington. Allegedly, she said, Tharp won the fight, walked away, then decided to turn around for more. Sturdevant said she was told Gaines then hit Tharp one time, causing him to fall and hit his head.
Pritchard’s boyfriend at the time was the first to get the word by phone of what happened.
After hearing the news, Sturdevant said she called warden Robert George Jr., who said her first born son was in a fight and never woke up.
“When I got to Christiana Hospital, no way was I prepared for the severity of his head injuries,” Sturdevant said.
The doctors were ready to give up, Price recalled, but when Tharp responded to his name by moving his finger, they rushed him into surgery.
“They removed bone fragments from Michael’s brain,” Sturdevant said. “It was crushed in a lot of places. At the time they did it they thought Michael wouldn’t come around, and he didn’t.”
“You don’t realize the different levels of hell you go through,” Price added. “The doctors said right away they didn’t think he would make it. Then we were in limbo for eight to 10 weeks. Then the reality and the horror set in that he wasn’t going to die and that he was going to be like that forever. Then you’re torn between whether or not he would’ve been better off if he were to die.”
Aside from the head injuries, Sturdevant noticed her son’s knuckles were bruised, indicating he was in a fight. He also suffered from internal bleeding, a dislocated shoulder and blood loss serious enough to require a transfusion. Sturdevant also said she smelled Mace on her son.
Tharp spent several months in the critical care unit at Christiana. His daughter took her first steps there.
A failed lawsuit and no closure
On July 11, 2003, Sturdevant’s civil suit against the state’s prison health services, specifically prison doctor Siobhan Irwin, was dismissed. She filed the suit because, she said, she felt the DOC was responsible for her son’s safety while he was in their custody.
Sturdevant’s request for a court-appointed lawyer was denied. Having no attorney of her own, Sturdevant said the state “blew her lawsuit away.”
“We got nothing,” Sturdevant said. “[The state] doesn’t even care. We couldn’t even get life insurance.”
Added Pritchard, “I lost my brother and my best friend forever, and [the DOC] acts like it was nothing, like he was a dog.”
In an email last week, Welch said it’s not prudent for the department to comment further as additional legal action from the family seems imminent.
Sturdevant said she’ll file the wrongful death suit as soon as her divorce proceedings are finalized. After her husband helped care for Tharp for the past several years, including doing things like changing his diapers, he left the family. Sturdevant said it was because he couldn’t handle the stress of having to care for her son in their home for so long.
This time, Sturdevant said, she will have a lawyer. The family is open to volunteer counsel, Tharp’s mother said.
In the meantime, the family is stuck with Tharp’s medical bills, which now stack up to more than $23,000 in expenses not covered by Medicaid.
In addition to the failed lawsuit, the chief prosecutor from the Attorney General’s office opted not to file charges against Gaines for his part in the fight. Lori Sitler, spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s office, said the decision was based on information from “several eyewitnesses accounts.”
“The deceased was the aggressor,” Sitler said of the fight. “It’s an unfortunate accident, but the deceased fell and hit his head. It’s not a chargeable offense. It was mutual fighting.”
The final year of Michael’s life
Sturdevant spent three years by her son’s side, caring for him in her living room.
Aside from looking after Tharp, Sturdevant also spent a year caring for her own mother. Both of her patients took a turn for the worst last August and were admitted to Kent General Hospital. Their hospital rooms were side by side. Sturdevant’s mother was buried on Aug. 19, 2003.
Tharp remained at KGH for nine months. After doctors told her Tharp wasn’t going to make it, he was transferred to the Home for the Chronically Ill in Smyrna.
One year to the day after her mother died, Sturdevant buried her son at the family plot in Townsend Cemetery.
Sturdevant said she hopes money possibly gained from the future lawsuit would cover the funeral costs. She’d also like to buy her son a headstone. More importantly, she said she wants Michaela to be supported.
“The DOC wants to forget,” said Price, who has named one of her six children Michael Paul after her brother. “But we won’t forget. We’ll always have questions. We can’t put it behind us.”
Reach Matt Donegan at 302.678.3616 or matt.donegan@doverpost.com
