Family of dead inmate sues Summit County Sheriff’s Office, citing jail’s history of ignoring medical needs – The Denver Post

0
253


The family of a woman who died after attempting suicide in the Summit County jail has sued the sheriff’s office, claiming jail staff ignored ignored her distress, did not provide her with prescribed antidepressant medication and showed “deliberate indifference” to her safety.

Jacqueline Bickford, 31, died in a hospital in April 2016 after hanging herself in her cell. The lawsuit claims her death fits a pattern of misconduct at the jail, including another death in 2013 and a serious assault the year before.

Summit County last year reached settlements totaling $3.7 million for those two incidents, evidence of a “custom, practice and policy of ignoring the serious medical needs/health and safety needs of inmates” at the sheriff’s office, civil rights attorney David Lane wrote in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Denver.

Summit County Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons said he could not comment on the pending litigation but noted that the incident occurred under the administration of a previous sheriff and undersheriff.

Bickford was arrested on suspicion of child abuse and neglect on April 6, 2016, when a sheriff’s deputy found her semi-conscious and intoxicated in an apartment with her infant son, according to court documents.

Bickford made multiple suicidal statements while being booked into jail that evening but was not placed on a protective mental health hold, according to the suit. Her blood alcohol content had been 0.351 at the hospital after her initial arrest.



Source : Denver Post