Attorney: County must pay for suspect's 2 prescriptions

The attorney for capital murder suspect Rickey Dale Newman has filed a motion asking a judge to order the Crawford County jail to provide him prescribed medication without charge.

Julie Brain filed the motion Tuesday, saying jailers informed her that the county would not pay $536.42 to renew Newman's prescriptions for Combivent and Flovent inhalers to treat her client's chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder. The prescription runs out Sunday.

She wrote in the motion that Newman had two attacks earlier this year for which he was hospitalized and treated at the UAMS Medical Center in Little Rock.

She wrote in the motion to Circuit Judge Gary Cottrell that the county jail paid for renewing the prescription last month, but after the jail found out how expensive the medication was, she was told that the jail would no longer provide him with the medication.

As a pretrial detainee, Brain wrote, Newman has the right to receive medical care and the county is responsible for seeing he gets that care.

Brain also asked that Cottrell order that the county cannot take money from Newman's commissary fund to pay for the medications. A commissary fund holds money for a jail inmate that he can use to purchase such things as toiletries and snacks.

Sheriff Ron Brown said Friday that his office is not obligated to pay for the medication because Newman's condition existed before he entered the jail. He said if Newman had contracted the illness while in the jail, his office would have to pay for the medication.

"We'll make sure he gets [his medication], but we're not going to pay for it," he said.

He said any co-pay Newman is charged for the medication will come out of his commissary fund under the policy the sheriff said he follows for all inmates.

Special Prosecutor Ron Fields of Fort Smith said Friday that he has seen the motion but has not responded. He said he will contact Prosecuting Attorney Marc McCune for advice on the motion.

Fields said he did not think the issue would be controversial and that he believed Newman will get whatever medication he needs.

Crawford County's attorney, Chuck Baker, said he had not been contacted about the motion. If Fields wants to refer it to him, he said, he would advise Brown to do whatever the court ordered.

Baker said it is up to the sheriff to ensure that a jail inmate receives any medication he is required to have.

Newman, 58, is in the county jail awaiting trial for the February 2001 mutilation slaying of transient Marie Cholette at a homeless camp in Van Buren.

In a one-day trial in June 2002, Newman admitted killing Cholette. The jury convicted Newman of capital murder, and he was sentenced to death.

Newman initially succeeded in waiving his appeal rights and was sentenced to be executed in 2005. But days before the date, he was granted permission to reinstate his appeals.

In January 2014, the Arkansas Supreme Court vacated his conviction and ordered he be retried after determining he was mentally incompetent to assist his attorney in preparing for his 2002 trial.

A new trial date has not been set. A mental competency hearing before Cottrell is scheduled for Sept. 18.

NW News on 08/22/2015

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