Suit: Lax medical care led to death
In ’18, Madelyn Linsenmeir died in police custody
SPRINGFIELD — Nearly six years ago, the family of 30-yearold Madelyn E. Linsenmeir poignantly memorialized her life and struggle with opioids in an obituary that drew national attention and encouraged the public to treat addiction as a disease rather than “a choice or a weakness.”
On Friday, Linsenmeir’s two sisters were in federal court in Springfield listening to about two hours of legal arguments dissecting her final days as she suffered from a heart valve infection while in the custody of Springfield police and later the Hampden County Sheriff ’s Office.
Linsenmeir, who grew up in Vermont and gave birth to a son in 2014, eventually became septic and died at a hospital on Oct. 7, 2018 while in the custody of the sheriff ’s office, court papers show.
Much of Friday’s hearing focused on Linsenmeir’s time in the custody of Springfield police. Her estate has accused the City of Springfield, three police employees, and two workers at the sheriff ’s office of ignoring her medical needs after she was arrested on Sept. 29, 2018.
The estate is also suing the sheriff ’s office for an alleged violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which applies to people with drug addiction like Linsenmeir, her estate said in court papers. The lawsuit accuses the three Springfield police employees and two workers at the sheriff ’s office of wrongful death.
The City of Springfield, sheriff ’s office, and their employees deny the allegations and are asking a judge to rule in their favor and close the case.
Daniel L. McFadden, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts who is representing Linsenmeir’s estate, accused Springfield police personnel of ignoring her complaints about pain after her arrest. The lawsuit asserts Linsenmeir could have survived with timely treatment and attorneys for the estate want the chance to
go to trial.
“The jury could conclude she was begging, begging for medical attention for chest pain and difficulty breathing,” McFadden said in court. “They did nothing for Madelyn. She received no medical care of any kind when she was in Springfield custody.”
Attorney Lisa C. deSousa, who represents the City of Springfield, said Linsenmeir’s symptoms and conduct while she was in custody did not suggest she was experiencing a medical emergency and that the police personnel who interacted with her didn’t have the expertise to recognize signs of a heart valve infection.
“They’re familiar with watching somebody who might be going into crisis because of alcohol intoxication or an overdose or significant health concerns,” deSousa said in court. “What they’re not able to do is determine whether somebody has infective endocarditis from 15 years of heroin abuse.”
Linsenmeir was arrested as she attempted to purchase heroin and charged with giving a false name and being a fugitive from New Hampshire, where she was on probation for a drugrelated offense, court records show.
Video footage from the Springfield police booking area showed Linsenmeir saying she might need to go to the hospital and complaining about her chest and right knee.
“I have a really, really, really bad chest, like I don’t know what happened to it, it feels like it’s caving in, I can’t even breathe. And my knees and my feet,” Linsenmeir said on the video, according to court records.
Linsenmeir later returned to the booking area, where she telephoned her mother in Vermont and told her she was sick and had been denied medical care, the lawsuit said.
During the phone call, Linsenmeir’s mother, Maureen, said she also spoke with a man who was with her daughter. Lawyers for the estate have identified the man as Moises Zanazanian, a Springfield police sergeant who was supervising the booking area and a defendant in the lawsuit.
During a 2022 deposition, Maureen Linsenmeir said Zanazanian told her police weren’t responsible for addressing her daughter’s complaints about her knee because the injury occurred before she was taken into custody. She didn’t identify Zanazanian by name during the deposition, according to a partial transcript filed in court.
“I said, ‘That is your responsibility to take care of and I want you to take care of her. I want you to take care of her,’ ” Maureen Linsenmeir said, according to the partial transcript filed in court. “And he said, ‘If you’re so worried about her medically, send an ambulance.’ ”
In court papers, Zanazanian has denied saying during the phone call that he wouldn’t provide Linsenmeir with medical treatment and an internal investigation by Springfield police found he didn’t violate a department rule governing medical treatment for prisoners.
“At worst, Zanazanian misjudged the medical situation,” lawyers for him and the city wrote in court papers, adding that a medical expert for Linsenmeir’s estate said her condition didn’t “appreciably worsen” until after she left Springfield police custody.
The internal investigation did find cause to discipline Zanazanian, however, for violating a police rule requiring officers to conduct themselves in a manner that “reflect[s] most favorably” on the department, court papers show, and he was suspended for two days. Zanazanian and his lawyer didn’t respond Saturday to messages requesting comment.
On Sept. 30, 2018, a day after her arrest in Springfield, Linsenmeir was transferred to the Hampden sheriff’s office and brought to the Western Massachusetts Regional Women’s Correctional Center in Chicopee, court records show. There, her estate says she continued to complain about knee and chest pain, but didn’t receive treatment for them. Her estate said staff at the correctional center implemented a detoxification plan for Linsenmeir, which included giving her a prescription medication for alcohol withdrawal, ibuprofen, ice, and a vitamin, and screened her for tuberculosis and sexually transmitted diseases.
On Oct. 4, 2018, medical staff at the facility found her unresponsive in her cell and summoned an ambulance, which took her to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, the lawsuit said. At the hospital, Linsenmeir was diagnosed with the heart valve infection and other ailments and began receiving antibiotics, but the complaint said “it was too late for Madelyn’s infections to be successfully treated” and she died three days later.
In court Friday, Thomas E. Day, a special assistant attorney general who represents the Hampden sheriff ’s office and its two workers, said evidence compiled during the litigation shows that while Linsenmeir was at the correctional center she “was receiving medical care” and had “meaningful access” to that care.
“No reasonable jury could find in the plaintiff ’s favor,” Day said.
US District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni suspended the hearing Friday afternoon after Day concluded his arguments. An ACLU spokesperson said Linsenmeir’s sisters didn’t wish to comment while the hearing is pending.
Lawyers for Linsenmeir’s estate are expected to press for letting the case proceed to a trial when the proceeding is set to resume Tuesday morning.
If the case goes before a jury, Mastroianni would preside at the trial, which would begin on May 20 in Springfield, court records show.