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| Former Police Chief Sues Prison |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 02/03/2003 |
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A former police chief serving life behind bars for manipulating his lover into killing his wife almost 20 years ago has sued officials over medical care at the South Dakota State Penitentiary. Edward McDowell, 54, is asking for nine medical procedures and several hundred thousand dollars in damages. He is acting as his own attorney. His lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Sioux Falls, also contains a laundry list of demands, including a digital color television, a Gateway computer, a West Bend coffee pot, approval to join a club to buy DVDs and compact discs - and a free weekend in a Sioux Falls hotel before being hospitalized for the medical tests and surgeries. McDowell is suing the secretary of the state Health Department, the Department of Corrections and its former secretary, prison Warden Doug Weber, two doctors, four nurses and Sioux Valley Hospital. He asked that the defendants be stripped of any immunity in the case. 'We haven't seen it,' Michael Winder, a Department of Corrections spokesman, said of the lawsuit. The department usually doesn't comment on litigation, he said recently. McDowell claims the defendants are deliberately indifferent to his chronic medical needs and that as a result, he is subjected to 'unnecessary cruel and unusual' punishment and discrimination. The lawsuit says McDowell has been diagnosed with a partial bowel obstruction, possibly caused by rectal polyps. Also, a spot found on his lung in October 2001 has yet to be properly diagnosed, according to the court document. As a result, McDowell said he has shortness of breath, wheezing and little stamina - and has gotten no treatment. He said he has been 'mostly confined to a wheelchair' for the last several years. In August, McDowell was diagnosed with cataracts in both eyes, the lawsuit said. He said that in October, prison medical officials 'ignored, disregarded or dismissed' his questions about cataract surgery. McDowell also claims he has been denied care and treatment for a throat problem that makes it difficult for him to swallow. The first procedure that should be performed is cataract surgery, accompanied by two free pairs of eyeglasses, the court papers said. Then, McDowell's lawsuit says he should get an expense-paid, three-day furlough in a suite at the Downtown Holiday Inn. A battery of medical tests and surgeries should be performed starting the Monday after the weekend furlough, according to the suit. |
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