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| Mo. County Inmate Dies in Fall From Bunk |
| By Springfield News Leader |
| Published: 03/05/2003 |
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A Newton County jail inmate died Sunday after falling face-down from his bunk to a concrete floor. A Monday-evening autopsy in Springfield should determine whether Allen Dale Rogers died because of the fall or a heart attack, said Newton County Coroner Mark Bridges. Rogers, 45, was arrested during the weekend on an Oklahoma warrant for failure to provide child support, said Newton County Sheriff Ron Doerge. Rogers listed a heart condition on a booking questionnaire when he was processed at the jail, officials said, but he exhibited no serious health problems. The Seneca-area man was placed in a cell block with barracks-style bunks and 14 other prisoners, Doerge said. 'Some inmates reported that he was hanging halfway off the bunk and making snoring, gurgling noises. They hollered at him, and he fell off the bunk face down,' he said. Officers responded immediately and began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Rogers, Doerge said. Medical personnel arrived within a few minutes and also attempted to resuscitate the inmate, he said. Rogers was transported to Freeman Neosho Hospital where he was pronounced dead around 7 p.m. Sunday, about an hour after his fall from the bunk, the sheriff said. The incident was captured on video, he said, which showed Rogers hanging partly off the bunk before falling four feet and four inches, untouched, to the floor. Rogers had been in jail for just 16 hours when he fell from the bunk, Doerge said. He was held there pending transport to Oklahoma. The death was the first to ever occur at Newton County Jail, which accommodates about 80 prisoners. It startled the 14 inmates who were witnesses, the sheriff said. 'I think anytime someone hits the floor face down and is not breathing, it would shake anyone up,' Doerge said. There is nothing authorities could have done differently to prevent the death, the sheriff said. The bunks are standard ones in place at jails across the nation, he said. In addition to an autopsy, officials will also perform a toxicology report on Rogers, Bridges said. 'They will pull fluids and send them to St. Louis University. Unless there's a change, that's where they always send them,' he said. After autopsy results are complete, Bridges said the body will go to Parker Mortuary in Joplin. While the Greene County Jail has not had a similar unusual incident, the facility has dealt with a few inmate suicides in recent years. The latest involved a female inmate who hanged herself in November, and prompted the sheriff's department to review its mental health procedures. |
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