LITTLE ROCK — The mother of a pregnant woman who hanged herself in the Pulaski County jail in 2010, more than a year after accusing a jailer of raping her in the same facility, alleged in a federal lawsuit Tuesday that jailers were responsible for the death for ignoring “clear signs of mental distress.”
The lawsuit filed by Sandra Leftridge, representing the estate of Jessie Ramonica Edwards, who was 28 and a mother of six, seeks compensatory and punitive damages from the county and unnamed jailers. It states that the jail staff ignored Edwards’ pleas for medical treatment after she was jailed for violating her probation by testing positive for drugs just before a court appearance.
“Upon arrival at the Pulaski County jail, the staff knew or should have known that Ms. Edwards had previously been raped by a Pulaski County detention officer,” according to the lawsuit, filed by attorney Brett A. Williams of Kansas City, Mo.
The county fired jailer Willie Lee Adams in early 2009 after a state Crime Laboratory analysis matched his DNA with a sample of semen that Edwards wiped on the inside of her bra to use as evidence. Owens was originally charged with rape in connection with the Dec. 18, 2008, encounter with Edwards but was facing a reduced charge of third-degree sexual assault when Edwards committed suicide.
Under the amended charge, it is a crime for jailers and others in positions of authority to have sex with inmates, even if it is consensual.
But after Edwards’ suicide, prosecutors dropped that charge against Owens, saying they couldn’t prove their case without the victim’s testimony.
In the wrongful-death lawsuit, which was randomly assigned to U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright, Leftridge noted that her daughter had exhibited erratic behavior in court earlier that day, then failed a drug test and, after voicing medical complaints, was taken by ambulance to UAMS Medical Center, which later released her to the jail.
While in a holding cell, Edwards repeatedly banged her head into a wall, but jailers ignored “this first overt sign of mental distress,” the lawsuit states.
While being admitted, Edwards told the jail staff that she was on medication for depression, the suit states. It states she was placed in a cell, and a short time later began to cry and thrash around, telling the staff that she needed to return to the hospital for mental-health treatment.
“The Pulaski County jail staff ignored this request for medical treatment and instead placed her in administrative segregation and did not institute suicide prevention measures,” the lawsuit alleges.
A short time later, it states, Edwards rolled on the ground, shouting about having a seizure, but the “staff advised Ms. Edwards that she was fine and left her alone and unsupervised in her cell. Less than an hour later ... Ms. Edwards wrapped a bed sheet around her neck and committed suicide.”
The lawsuit contends that jailers deprived Edwards of her constitutional right to be free from excessive punishment and indifference to her medical needs, as well as her right to due process and equal protection.
The jail, it states, had a duty to exercise reasonable care, knowing that Edwards suffered from mental illness.
Edwards was 16 weeks pregnant at the time of her death. The insurance pool to which Pulaski County belongs paid $25,000 in 2009 to settle her civil claim against the county.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 05/30/2012