Iowa jail seizure death lawsuit settled for $3.5 million
A northern Iowa county has agreed to pay out $3.5 million to the family members of a man who died in jail after suffering a seizure.
Legal professional Dave O’Brien, representing the family members of Ricky Christianson, introduced the settlement agreement to solve a lawsuit filed in November 2021. The case experienced been scheduled to go to trial in 2023.
Cerro Gordo County supervisors referred issues to the county’s attorney, Dave Schrock, who declined to comment.
Christianson, 59, was booked into the Cerro Gordo County Jail on Nov. 17, 2020, for a probation violation. According to the lawsuit filed by his small children, the arresting Mason Metropolis law enforcement officer did not deliver Christianson’s anti-seizure medicine to the jail, and Christianson advised jail officers for the duration of scheduling that he suffered life-threatening seizures, like one the preceding working day.
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The up coming working day, in accordance to the grievance, Christianson had a seizure soon right before 7 a.m. In reaction, jail staff members took Christianson to a padded cell and laid him out on the flooring. Digicam footage displays Christianson was still left alone in the cell for extra than 90 minutes before he was observed lifeless.
The fit alleged jail personnel realized about Christianson’s seizures, and that he was an alcoholic at chance of withdrawal signs, but neither presented medicine nor placed him on heightened checking for his health and fitness affliction. They also did not provide any healthcare treatment method or analysis, it stated.
In court docket filings, the county claimed that the jail team experienced monitored Christianson through and following his seizure, which include following he was put in the padded cell, and “there was no sign that any specific medical cure was necessary or expected at that time.”
O’Brien in a assertion praised the county for acting quickly to settle the scenario, a lot more than a year ahead of it was set for trial.
“Mistakes transpire, and as errors go this a person was quite egregious,” O’Brien reported. “However, somewhat than refusing to give materials necessary to be introduced beneath Iowa’s open documents legislation, hoping to protect up the wrongdoing and accepting no accountability for any mistakes … Cerro Gordo County retained remarkably attained counsel, assessed the situation and acted swiftly and appropriately to resolve the subject.”
O’Brien claimed his customers are reassured based mostly on the county’s actions “that this kind of a miscalculation is really not likely to be repeated.”
April 2021:An inmate who was COVID-19 constructive died in prison by suicide, the state claims. His family is even now seeking for solutions.
The settlement, which is not yet reflected in on the web courtroom documents, seems to be the greatest in recent jail death situations all around the condition, even though it truly is not distinct no matter whether it sets a document.
The point out Department of Corrections paid out $125,000 in 2021 to settle a lawsuit from the loved ones of a person who died by suicide at the Waterloo Residential Correctional Facility in 2016. In 2018, Grundy County paid $500,000 to the spouse and children of a gentleman who hung himself in his cell while the only jailer on duty waited 13 minutes outside his door for backup just before going in to render help. O’Brien also represented the loved ones in that scenario.
Requested about the settlement volume, O’Brien stated by means of a spokesperson that a greater settlement implies that “Iowans are beginning to far better value the lives of other Iowans.”
Various other jail dying lawsuits remain pending close to the state, such as a single submitted in relationship with a Polk County detainee who was fatally wounded in a November 2019 suicide attempt just 3 times right after he’d earlier tried to get rid of himself. His mom alleges the jail took no precautions immediately after the initially attempt to protect against him from hoping yet again.
William Morris handles courts for the Des Moines Sign up. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.
