A judge on Thursday ordered that a man could be conditionally released to house arrest from the Flathead County Detention Center after he had raised concerns about being exposed to hepatitis C in the jail.

Max Wayne Allen, 47, claimed that he had been put in proximity to another prisoner who put him at risk of hepatitis C and that the jail staff had handled the situation poorly.

Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry has denied Allen’s claim and defended the jail staff’s handling of hepatitis C cases.

Flathead District Court Judge David Ortley said the claims about health policy inside the jail did not factor into his decision to allow conditional release of Allen; however, the judge said he did not think that the taxpayers should have to pay for medical treatment for chronic conditions that Allen is already suffering.

“I think it is entirely unfair for our community to be paying for your medical expenses, given you remain in jail,” Ortley said.

Allen, who is charged with two felony counts of failing to register as a sex offender, told the judge that he suffered from a rare genetic disorder called Alpha I that made him prone to liver and lung disease as well as myriad other health issues. Allen said doctors have told him that his time is running out, with only a 40 percent chance of long-term survival if he receives a lung transplant. Allen’s wife presented letters to Ortley during the hearing from Allen’s doctors that said that exposure to hepatitis C could pose a risk to his health.

While on the witness stand, Allen claimed that exposure to a mere cold is enough to pose a serious health threat. “I need to be checked out and I need treatment,” Allen said. “My treatment is costly.”

Allen said he was especially concerned that he had shared a cell block with a prisoner who spent several days in the detention center in October after being stabbed. The prisoner was recently transported to the Spokane County Jail, where he is facing both felony and municipal charges.

Allen said that after one day of being housed together, the prisoner “told us we need to be careful with his blood because he had hepatitis C.”

Allen claimed that it was several days before bandages over the prisoner’s stab wounds were changed.

“His bandages were filthy, disgusting, crusty from the crap draining out,” Allen said.

The infected prisoner wrote a letter on Oct. 15 detailing the alleged conditions of his treatment. Allen said the letter was written and disseminated to fellow inmates in case the prisoners wanted to file a class-action lawsuit against the jail or use it to better inform their attorneys about their treatment in jail.

Allen’s attorney, Greg Rapkoch, said he was not presenting the letter to attack jail staff, but that he did want to point out that prisoners were often exposed to adverse personalities and health conditions while in custody.

“I’m not here to battle the jail on how they handle these issues,” Rapkoch said.

Prosecutor John Donovan was not sold on the fact that Allen’s time in jail was the only contributing factor to Allen’s health issues. Donovan got Allen’s wife to admit on the stand that Allen was a drinker and a smoker, despite the fact that those behaviors can worsen existing liver and lung issues.

Donovan said he was concerned about releasing Allen, who was originally held on $100,000 bond, because he was convicted of two counts of rape in the 1990s. Allen also was convicted of failing to register as a sex offender in 2011 in Lincoln County. He is currently being held on two counts of failure to register.

Allen and his wife gave some explanation for the charges, saying that Allen receives federal disability benefits, limiting the family’s income. The family would park its motor home at different campgrounds for 14 days at a time before moving on, Allen said in explaining why the family was not at the address he registered with law enforcement. Allen’s medical expenses and a recent string of family tragedies make it difficult for the family to get ahead, he claimed tearfully.

While Judge Ortley was willing to grant monitored release, he pointed out that Allen bears some responsibility for his predicament.

“Much of your current situation is of your own doing,” Ortley said.

Sheriff Curry said Allen was still in jail as of Tuesday and had not met the judges’ imposed requirements for release, which include paying for GPS monitoring.

Curry defended his staff’s treatment of the infected prisoner while in custody.

“He was isolated when he was potentially contagious,” Curry said. “He was in medical isolation anytime he had any sort of open wounds. It’s not casual-contact spread.”

Curry said that it is estimated that up to 70 percent of some prison populations are infected with hepatitis C, because of the high incidence of drug usage. Curry said the already overcrowded Flathead County Detention Center would have to be a lot bigger if hepatitis C carriers were to be separated from the general population.

“We don’t keep people medically isolated when they have hep C,” Curry said. “We certainly took all the appropriate medical precautions. Inmates oftentimes claim lots of things. We do our very best to protect the health and safety of everyone in our custody. We have medical people on staff and they treat people every day.”

Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or [email protected].