CLEARFIELD – The attorney for the mother of an inmate of the Clearfield County Jail who died of a drug overdose has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the county, the warden and several corrections officers.
Kaitlyn Evans, 31, daughter of Heather and Harold Walstrom and Mark A. Evans Sr., died of a drug overdose during the early-morning hours of July 8.
Police say Angela Marie Ricketts, 38, hid drugs including Fentanyl, Xanax and Klonopin in a body cavity when she was taken into custody for a warrant on July 5. She is charged with multiple offenses including drug delivery resulting in death.
According to the affidavit of probable cause in the Ricketts case, the next day at the jail, she and two other women did a “line” of drugs together in a cell.
Later one of the women started to have a seizure before becoming unresponsive. While the corrections officers administered CPR on her, the other woman also became unconscious. Both were revived after Narcan was given to them.
On the way to the hospital, one of the women reportedly said she got the drugs from Ricketts.
The complaint prepared by attorney Dylan Hastings of Philadelphia and filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on Friday, states that the jail and employees “did nothing to locate the remaining Fentanyl and ignored Kaitlyn for over 35 minutes while she was exhibiting obvious signs of a medical emergency—more specifically, an opioid overdose.”
It goes on to say that even when they did realize her condition, “they did nothing to provide her emergency medical care, which forced another inmate to administer CPR to Kaitlyn until Clearfield EMS arrived, among many other acts of deliberate indifference.”
Those named specifically in the lawsuit are the county, Warden David Gallagher and corrections officers Robert Foust, Kimberly Wallace, Zackery Clark, David Litzinger and Sgt. Tyler Daniels.
The complaint alleges that Gallagher was aware Ricketts smuggled the drugs into the facility “but did nothing to timely locate the remaining supply and allowed her to remain in the CCJ’s general population.
“In fact, Clearfield County and Warden Gallagher are aware that there is widespread drug and alcohol consumption by CCJ’s own staff before and during their shifts at the jail, but have ignored the issue out of concern that they will be unable to fill staffing voids if those violators are terminated as the jail is routinely understaffed.”
It claims they have failed to properly train the officers on how to search defendants when they are admitted to the jail and do not even have an established written contraband search policy.
The lack of a body scanner is also mentioned. (Recently the Clearfield County Commissioners approved the purchase of a body scanner.)
According to these court documents, the timeline of events is as follows: when Foust performed his routine wellness round at 2:30 a.m., he noticed that Kaitlyn, who was fine at 2 a.m., was “slouched in her bunk in an abnormal position.”
He did not take any action other than mentioning it to Wallace, who also failed to immediately check on her but stated she would check on Kaitlyn on her next round.
“Both Officers Foust and Wallace had a nondelegable duty to take immediate action to attend to Kaitylyn’s obvious sings of a medical emergency, but they were deliberately indifferent to her needs,” the complaint states.
At 3:05 a.m., Wallace checked on Kaitlyn, asking her cellmate to wake her, but Kaitlyn was unresponsive. Wallace radioed for Daniels to come to their location. After Daniels arrived, he ordered Litzinger to call 911, which he did not do until at 3:11 a.m.
Kaitlyn was removed from the cell, but neither Wallace nor Daniels administered CPR. Instead, another inmate was allowed out of her cell to do CPR on Kaitlyn until Emergency Medical Services personnel arrived at 3:19 a.m., it says in the paperwork.
Clark is mentioned here for not taking an automated external defibrillator to the scene of the incident.
“Shockingly, not only did the Defendant Corrections Officers fail to timely initiate CPR and use an AED, but they also failed to administer Kaitylyn Narcan.”
(Narcan was used for the previous two overdoses with both women being revived.)
EMS did use an AED on Kaitlyn and gave her Narcan but neither helped her and she was declared dead at 3:38 a.m.
She had both Fentanyl and acetyl Fentanyl in her system and the cause of death was a multi-drug overdose, according to the autopsy report.
The suit insinuates that the jail is failing to train the staff not only in policies concerning emergency procedures and pharmaceutical management, but it does not adhere to policies regarding CPR certification requirements.
Additional accusations are made of misconduct at the facility including officers “fraternizing with each other and inmates, engaging in romantic relationships with each other and inmates, consuming drugs and alcohol before and during work and sleeping while on duty.”
It also states that Gallagher has hired staff with criminal backgrounds including those with previous periods of incarcerations at CCJ.
A jury trial is demanded by the suit and Hastings is asking that Kaitlyn’s estate receives injunctive relief, general and compensatory damages, exemplary damages and legal fees.
