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| Sheriff sued over fatal jail heart attack |
| By Chicago Tribune |
| Published: 09/27/2004 |
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A federal lawsuit filed last Tuesday alleged that a pretrial detainee in Cook County (Ill.) Jail died of a heart attack after his pleas for help went ignored by correctional officers for three days in May. The suit by the family of Michael Kruse, 43, says that in his final hours he was often doubled over in pain, leaning against a wall for support, wheezing and groaning loudly. Kruse was only minutes from Cermak Hospital in the jail complex, but his pleas for help went unheeded by correctional officers who at times were playing cards, said attorney Jerry Bischoff, who filed the suit. The suit names Sheriff Michael Sheahan, jail director Callie Baird and several correctional officers as defendants and contends inmates routinely wait for long periods of time for access to medical care even when they need immediate help. Spokesmen for Sheahan didn't return a call seeking comment on the suit. Bischoff said more than 20 inmates signed a letter detailing how Kruse went without medical aid despite his cries for help and obvious pain. Kruse, a father of two who lived in unincorporated Bridgeview, was arrested on warrants charging he robbed a video store twice in August 2002. But Bischoff insisted he had timesheet records and accounts of co-workers that Kruse was working at the time of the robberies in Tennessee. |
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