‘Denial of medical care’ alleged in death
Estate of woman who perished after Springfield arrest sues city, county sheriff ’s office
SPRINGFIELD — A legal battle over the 2018 death of Madelyn E. Linsenmeir while she was in law enforcement custody has revealed considerable disagreement over key points in the medical care she received in her final days.
And whether a federal jury will get the chance to weigh the competing accounts is the question before US District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni.
Earlier this month, Mastroianni concluded two days of hearings on requests that will determine whether a wrongful death lawsuit filed in 2020 by Linsenmeir’s estate will go to trial.
Mastroianni hasn’t indicated when he will issue a ruling.
Linsenmeir’s estate wants the opportunity to take the lawsuit to trial. The defendants — the City of Springfield, Hampden County sheriff ’s office, and some of its workers — deny the allegations in the civil complaint and have asked Mastroianni to rule in their favor and close the case.
Linsenmeir, 30, who grew up in Vermont and had a 3-year-old son, died on Oct. 7, 2018, from complications of a heart valve infection tied to her opioid use. Her family honored her with an death notice that drew national attention and encouraged the public to treat addiction as a disease rather than “a choice or a weakness.”
If there’s a trial, the proceeding would begin May 20 at the federal courthouse in Springfield.
Linsenmeir’s 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 complaint also accuses the three police employees and two workers at the sheriff ’s office of wrongful death. The estate is suing the sheriff ’s office for an alleged violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which applies to people with drug addiction like Linsenmeir.
“We appreciate the court’s thorough attention to Maddie’s case,” Linsenmeir’s family said in a statement after the hearing ended on March 12. The statement was released by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which is handling the lawsuit on behalf of the estate.
“We miss her every minute of every day and will continue to pursue justice not just for her but on behalf of everyone with substance-use disorder, especially those who find themselves in the custody of the Springfield Police and Hampden County Sheriff’s depart
ments,” the statement said.
The hearing on March 12 focused on Linsenmeir’s stay at the Western Massachusetts Regional Women’s Correctional Center in Chicopee, which is run by the sheriff ’s office. Linsenmeir was transported to the facility a day after Springfield police arrested her on charges that she gave a false name and was a fugitive from New Hampshire, where she was on probation for a drug-related offense.
When Linsenmeir arrived at the facility, correctional staff provided her with a medical evaluation, took her vital signs, and determined she had been abusing opioids and alcohol, court records show.
Four days later, on Oct. 4, 2018, correctional staff found Linsenmeir unresponsive and summoned an ambulance to take her to a Springfield hospital, where she was diagnosed with the heart valve infection. She died three days later from sepsis and other complications.
During the medical evaluation on Linsenmeir’s first day at the correctional center, her vital signs were within normal limits, the City of Springfield said in court papers. She was given a prescription medication for alcohol withdrawal, a vitamin, ibuprofen, and ice, court records show.
But David Milton, a lawyer for Linsenmeir’s estate from Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts, said Springfield police didn’t inform staff at the correctional center that Linsenmeir had complained during her booking a day earlier that she was experiencing chest and knee pain and believed she may need to go to the hospital.
Outside Linsenmeir’s medical evaluation during the intake process and screenings she received for tuberculosis and sexually transmitted diseases, Milton said correctional center staff denied her medical care. He alleged those denials were discriminatory because they were based on Linsenmeir’s abuse of opioids and alcohol.
“We’re saying that after that intake and until four days later when she was found to be at the point of no return ... there was denial of medical care,” Milton said in court. “Yes, they gave her an intake but that doesn’t immunize them for what they did or didn’t do afterwards.”
During her first night at the facility, Linsenmeir complained to correctional staff that she “was sick, and not from being ‘dopesick’” and had chest pain, her estate said in court papers.
“Officers refused her care and they did so, telling her this is your fault for using drugs,” Milton said in court.
He said there were other examples of Linsenmeir being denied medical care when she needed a wheelchair during a tuberculosis screening and tripped going upstairs for a screening for sexually transmitted diseases.
By the evening of Oct. 3, 2018, Linsenmeir’s estate says she was in septic shock, had become too weak to stand up or leave her cell for meals, and other prisoners were trying to ask staff to help her.
In court, Thomas E. Day, a special assistant attorney general who represents the Hampden County sheriff ’s office and its two workers, said that Linsenmeir’s cellmates made allegations that Linsenmeir asked correctional staff for medical help and didn’t receive it because of her problems with substance abuse.
Day said the sheriff ’s office is challenging the accounts from Linsenmeir’s cellmates because her estate allegedly disclosed them after the deadline for submitting evidence. In court papers, the estate said Linsenmeir’s cellmates were identified as potential witnesses before the deadline.
Mastroianni declined to hear arguments, saying the matter was before Magistrate Judge Katherine A. Robertson.
Without the accounts of Linsenmeir’s cellmates, Day said there’s no evidence that correctional facility staff made discriminatory decisions about her care because she abused drugs.
“That’s where the [Americans with Disabilities Act] claim falls apart because they don’t have evidence of that,” he said.
Day defended the protocol the sheriff ’s department follows for prisoners who are withdrawing from alcohol. Linsenmeir’s estate has criticized the process, saying it didn’t call for medical staff to take her vital signs after she started treatment.
“The policy doesn’t say, ‘You don’t take vitals,’ ” Day said in court. “There is no evidence that this alcohol withdrawal protocol was based in discrimination.”