Deal ends suit over pregnant inmates' care in jail

A lawsuit filed by seven women alleging Pulaski County jail employees and contractors failed to provide proper medical treatment while they were pregnant and incarcerated has been settled.

The lawsuit alleges "the defendants' deliberate failure to provide proper medical treatment to each plaintiff ... resulted in serious physical and emotional injuries to [the plaintiffs]," and the death of an infant. The purported episodes occurred between July 2012 and December 2013.

Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen signed an order Friday granting a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. On April 10, an attorney for the plaintiffs, Luther Sutter, had filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, stating that the "parties have settled" and "settlement funds have been exchanged."

Terms of the settlement were not included in the case file.

Attorneys for both sides couldn't be reached by phone Tuesday afternoon.

The lawsuit was originally filed in February 2014 by Stephanie Hernandez against Pulaski County Sheriff Doc Holladay, jail administrator Randy Morgan and jail medical director Carl Johnson.

The lawsuit was amended twice, with a third amended complaint filed in September 2014 listing Hernandez, Ratha Parr, Megan Harris Halferty, Lillian Marshall, Shermica King, Stephanie Reichard and Frelandra Womack as plaintiffs. Irvin Robinson is listed as the special administrator for the estate of Zachary James Thomas, Halferty's infant son who the lawsuit alleges died because of a lack of prenatal care while Halferty was in the lockup.

The amended lawsuit lists Holladay, Morgan and Johnson as defendants, but also includes 15 jail employees and contractors as defendants, along with "John Does 1-100."

According to the lawsuit, the jail failed "to provide pregnant inmates with proper medical treatment." The lawsuit also states that "the jail had a pattern, practice, custom and policy as the motivating force behind the deprivation of constitutional rights and deliberate indifference to the serious medical needs of pregnant inmates."

The lawsuit alleges the jail refused to call ambulances, call physicians or get women in labor or having miscarriages to the hospital. The inmates were denied prenatal vitamins, extra meals and timely access to a doctor or examinations, the lawsuit claims.

According to the lawsuit, the practices of the jail resulted in Hernandez giving birth to her child while in an ambulance; Parr, Reichard and King to miscarry; and Marshall and Womack to experience "bleeding and severe pain" during childbirth.

The lawsuit alleges Hernandez, while in labor, was told by "multiple guards and nurses" that "the policy was that they would not call an ambulance until they saw blood on the floor." While in labor, Womack was "shackled," the lawsuit states, and even though she begged to see the doctor, she "was told she would not see the doctor until the baby crowned."

In Halferty's case, the lawsuit states, she was denied prenatal care while in the jail and on Sept. 18, 2012, her son, Zachary James Thomas, "died as a result."

During the early morning hours, Halferty alleges, she began having contractions, but a guard "mocked" her, stating, "You're putting on a show tonight," according to the lawsuit.

"She had to lay on the floor of the unit, visible to all, without medical attention, continuing to have contractions, continuing to ask for help and continuing to receive no help," the lawsuit states.

About 4 a.m., Halferty showed a nurse a "thick, dark discharge," but the nurse said they could do nothing and left, the lawsuit states. About five or 10 minutes later, Halferty had her baby in the toilet.

The lawsuit states the infant was dead and "multiple nurses and guards" entered the unit, but they couldn't cut the umbilical cord.

"They put ... Zachary James Thomas in a medical waste bag, while still attached to [Halferty]," the lawsuit states. "No attempt to resuscitate Zachary James Thomas was made."

The lawsuit states the defendants' acts and omissions breached their constitutional duty and "violated each plaintiff's clearly established rights under the Arkansas Constitution, and the defendants were deliberately, consciously and intentionally indifferent to each plaintiff's obvious, serious medical needs."

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs had sought compensatory and punitive damages in an amount to be determined by a jury.

Metro on 05/06/2015

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