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| City Will Pay $2M After an Inmate’s Death |
| By nytimes.com - BENJAMIN WEISER |
| Published: 05/26/2011 |
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New York City has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that a postal worker died in jail because his severe alcohol withdrawal went untreated. The agreement was announced this week in Federal District Court in Manhattan. The former postal worker, Oswald Livermore, 51, was arrested in May 2007 and jailed in the Manhattan Detention Complex, known as the Tombs, after a dispute in which his wife barred him from their apartment because he had been drinking, a court opinion says. The lawsuit contended that despite clear evidence Mr. Livermore had alcohol withdrawal — he had seemed agitated and disoriented, and admitted at the jail’s clinic that he drank two or three pints of rum a day — medical personnel there failed to follow a written protocol on treating severe alcohol withdrawal, which includes hospitalization. Despite an initial medical evaluation and two subsequent referrals to the clinic, Mr. Livermore was kept in the jail’s general population, the lawsuit says. He was pronounced dead about 28 hours after being placed in the jail, records show. “There was a conspicuous failure to follow the requirements of the alcohol withdrawal protocol,” said a lawyer for Mr. Livermore’s family, Jonathan S. Chasan of the Legal Aid Society’s prisoners’ rights project. He said the case was important because the city’s jails “routinely admit inmates with drug and alcohol problems.” Another of the family’s lawyers, Jonathan S. Abady, added, “It’s not at all clear that the city has taken adequate corrective action,” like offering additional training for workers on the protocol, “to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.” In reaching the settlement, the city did not admit liability or wrongdoing. “While we felt settlement was in the best interest of all parties,” said Kate O’Brien Ahlers, a spokeswoman for the city’s Law Department, “we continue to maintain that Mr. Livermore received appropriate care.” Read More. |
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