The circle of relatives of a person who died from an overdose in a Sacramento County prison after being left unattended for hours have agreed to a $3.5 million agreement.
That guy, David Kent Barefield Sr., 55, used to be dragged throughout a storage into the prison final Would possibly, no longer given a scientific examination in spite of being visibly unwell, handcuffed in a cart whilst looking forward to reserving and most effective introduced scientific support in his ultimate mins, prison pictures displays.
Mr. Barefield’s family members described the forget in a civil case filed final December towards the county’s Sheriff’s Place of work, its well being division and the Town of Sacramento police. The agreement used to be showed via the circle of relatives’s attorney and via a county spokeswoman; a duplicate of the file displays it used to be signed on March 5. The case with the town remains to be pending.
The Sheriff’s Place of work investigated Mr. Barefield’s dying and located that none of its staff violated any regulation or coverage, consistent with a redacted document that used to be launched to The New York Occasions and The Wilderness Solar on Thursday.
The main points of Mr. Barefield’s final hours are captured in surveillance and frame digicam video received via The Occasions and The Solar via a data request. The organizations previously reported a few of that data, mentioning accounts from legal professionals and scientific professionals who investigated the dying and 6 others within the county’s jails final yr as a part of a federal court docket tracking program. The court docket had appointed the ones screens in a class-action lawsuit associated with broader court cases about hospital treatment within the amenities.
Mr. Barefield, who used to be homeless, were arrested on robbery and trespassing fees early within the morning of Would possibly 12, 2024. The newly launched pictures from 5 cameras displays him in more than a few phases of acute scientific misery. He used to be by no means taken to a medical institution all the way through the greater than 3 hours he spent on the major prison in Sacramento.
The Sheriff’s Place of work reported to the California Division of Justice that Mr. Barefield died of herbal reasons. However a county coroner decided that he died via overdosing on fentanyl and methamphetamine.
The county well being division, which employs the scientific personnel on the prison, the Sheriff’s Place of work and the town police declined to remark about main points of the dying captured at the video. The circle of relatives additionally declined to remark for this text.
Incapable of status, Mr. Barefield used to be pulled via a police officer about 100 ft around the concrete flooring of the prison’s storage, then struggled to stick upright on a bench, the pictures displays. Sacramento Police Division coverage calls for officials to take arrestees to a medical institution if they’re wanting remedy.
The arresting officer helped him drink some water however most commonly left him by myself whilst he labored on a close-by pc. He sooner or later positioned him in a restraint cart and exited the prison about half-hour later.
Mr. Barefield remained within the cart, transferring unevenly with palms certain in the back of his again, for greater than an hour in a a long way nook of the prison’s reserving house. Deputies, officials and scientific personnel may also be observed sitting at desks about 30 ft away, checking on different detainees or passing him via.
A registered nurse approached Mr. Barefield about an hour after he arrived. He leaned down with a clipboard to talk with him, however there is not any audio shooting the alternate.
The nurse didn’t read about him or contact him, and walked away after a couple of mins, the video displays. Courtroom-appointed scientific professionals mentioned the nurse falsified a file claiming he had finished a scientific examination and cleared him for reserving, consistent with their document. That nurse would sooner or later surrender, the county well being division mentioned, regardless that it didn’t say why.
About half-hour later, 3 deputies debated e book the motionless guy. One accused him of “taking part in video games.”
They carried him to the reserving digicam and propped him on his knees towards a wall, his backside part in part nude. Each and every deputy held his head up via his hair with a gloved hand because the photograph used to be taken. Song blared within the background.
A deputy may also be heard a twinkling of an eye later asking questions concerning the purported scientific examination.
“His vitals have been high quality,” a nurse may also be heard announcing. “He’s simply previous and homeless.”
The deputies wrenched his hand as much as a gadget to take his fingerprints, which they needed to repeat a number of instances. One deputy, maintaining Mr. Barefield’s head via the hair, requested, “Is he respiring?”
Some other deputy shined a gentle into the person’s eyes. They dragged him to an open house and sensed a faint pulse. Just about two hours after Mr. Barefield used to be dropped at the prison and quarter-hour when they began to hold him in the course of the reserving procedure, they puzzled if he may continue to exist.
“I think adore it’s about to occur,” a deputy added quickly earlier than they started CPR. “We’ve a in point of fact vulnerable pulse at the moment.”
As his vitals persevered to vanish, nurses got here to assist them. Firefighters joined the hassle, however Mr. Barefield used to be pronounced lifeless at the prison flooring about half-hour later.
That company and the county well being division mentioned adjustments were made to the reserving procedure in mild of Mr. Barefield’s dying however didn’t supply additional main points.
Mark Merin, the circle of relatives’s attorney, mentioned the pictures printed a fashionable tradition of forget on the prison.
“This displays a number of people who find themselves supposedly professionals humiliating and making amusing of any person who’s in dire want of lend a hand,” Mr. Merin mentioned.
