Free Intervenor Complaint - District Court of Colorado - Colorado

Case 1:02-cv-00651-RPM Case 1:02-cv-00651-RPM

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO Civil Action No. 02-cv-0651-RPM-MJW MARK SHOOK and DENNIS JONES, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, and JAMES VAUGHAN, SHIRLEN MOSBY, THOMAS REINIG, and LOTTIE ELLIOTT, Intervenor-Plaintiffs, v. THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF THE COUNTY OF EL PASO and TERRY MAKETA, in his official capacity as Sheriff of El Paso County, Defendants. CLASS ACTION COMPLAINT IN INTERVENTION

Intervenor-Plaintiff Victor Siegrist alleges as follows: INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT 1. In the Class Action Complaint for Injunctive and Declaratory Relief ("Class

Action Complaint") on behalf of the class, the plaintiffs challenged the care provided to prisoners in the El Paso County Jail ("Jail") who are in need of mental health care. They raised serious questions concerning, inter alia, the facilities provided for prisoners with serious mental health needs, the effectiveness of the contracts with private mental health care providers, the training and qualifications of both the mental health staff and the security staff for proper

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management of prisoners with serious mental health needs, the sufficiency of the mental health staff to provide appropriate care and supervision for the several hundred prisoners in need of mental health services, and the timeliness of diagnosis, treatment and transfer to other facilities. 2. They also cited a number of examples of inadequate care that had led to serious

injury and, in some cases, suicide. 3. The Class Action Complaint in Intervention by Thomas Reinig and Lottie Elliott,

allowed by the Court on April 1, 2005, raises similar claims. 4. Mental health care at the El Paso County Jail continues to fall so far below

minimal standards of adequacy as to violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. These continuing deficiencies are set forth in Plaintiffs' Supplemental Class Action Complaint for Injunctive and Declaratory Relief, dated January 24, 2005 ("Plaintiffs' Supplemental Complaint"), which Intervenor-Plaintiff incorporates by reference and adopts in its entirety. 5. Intervenor-Plaintiff is a member of the putative class, and a current prisoner in the

Jail. He faces the same risks, and is experiencing the same consequences of defendants' actions, inactions, and continuing deliberate indifference, as the original plaintiffs, the intervenorplaintiffs and the plaintiff class. He seeks to intervene in this action as an additional class representative. JURISDICTION AND VENUE 6. Intervenor-Plaintiff Siegrist incorporates by reference Paragraph 8 of the Class

Action Complaint.

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THE INTERVENOR-PLAINTIFF 7. Intervenor-Plaintiff incorporates by reference Paragraphs 9 and 11-14 of the Class

Action Complaint, substituting Terry Maketa for John Wesley Anderson in Paragraph 13. 8. Intervenor-Plaintiff Victor Siegrist has for many years suffered from

schizoaffective paranoid disorder, bipolar type, and has experienced many episodes of seizures. He is now in the El Paso County Jail and has been confined in the jail since April 27, 2005, except for periods when he was in Memorial Hospital and in the State Hospital at Pueblo for reasons related to his mental health problems. 9. During his time in the Jail, he has been subjected to numerous deprivations and

adverse effects caused by the policies, practices, acts and omissions of the defendants and the Jail staff that are alleged in the Class Action Complaint, the Supplemental Complaint, and the complaints of earlier intervenors. For example, Mr. Siegrist has endured periods of time when he was unjustifiably deprived of medications that were necessary to stabilize the effects of his mental illness. He has been locked up in cells that have no sink or toilet but have only a hole in the floor for sanitation. He has been forced to go to court appearances while wearing a humiliating suicide gown. 10. When Mr. Siegrist's mental health condition deteriorated and he believed he

would be sent overseas and tortured, the defendants failed to protect him adequately from the risk of self-harm, resulting in a nearly-successful suicide attempt that prompted hospitalization. During this episode, the Jail staff also subjected Mr. Siegrist to repeated shocks from a taser, which have left permanent scars, in response to behavior that was a product of Mr. Siegrist's mental health problems. Afterwards, Mr. Siegrist was sent to the Colorado Mental Health

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Institute at Pueblo, where he received medications that stabilized his condition. Upon his return to the Jail, however, Mr. Siegrist's medication was changed, without Mr. Siegrist having been examined by a doctor. During his time in the Jail, Mr. Siegrist personally observed and experienced the inadequate mental health staffing in the jail. FACTS RELATING TO THE CLASS AND THE CLASS ACTION 11. Intervenor-Plaintiff incorporates by reference Paragraphs 15-18 of the Class

Action Complaint. 12. Intervenor-Plaintiff seeks to intervene in this action as an additional class

representative on behalf of the class as defined in Paragraph 15 of the Class Action Complaint. STATEMENT OF FACTS COMMON TO ALL PLAINTIFFS AND THE PLAINTIFF CLASS 13. Intervenor-Plaintiff incorporates by reference Paragraphs 19-57 of the Class

Action Complaint. 14. Sarah Brock. Sarah Lynn Brock was booked into the Jail on July 7, 2005. On

intake, she disclosed that she had had a baby five weeks previously; she also advised Jail staff that she suffered from bipolar disorder and depression. On July 12, 2005, the Jail received Ms. Brock's records from Pike's Peak Mental Health, which confirmed that she had been diagnosed as bipolar, had been prescribed medication for this condition, and had "a long history of hospitalizations beginning at age 7." On July 27, 2005, Ms. Brock met with a "mental health clinician" at the Jail. She complained of depression, and begged for medication to treat her mental illness. The mental health clinician wrote in her notes that Ms. Brock was "attempting to manipulate for medications as well as other possible secondary gains," and recommended that Ms. Brock not receive any medication. Three days later, Ms. Brock was found hanging in her

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housing area; she died shortly thereafter. She was 21 years old. An investigation revealed that a deputy assigned to Ms. Brock's housing area "failed to perform several security checks" in the hours preceding Ms. Brock's suicide. FACTS RELATING TO NAMED PLAINTIFFS 15. Intervenor-Plaintiff incorporates by reference Paragraphs 58, and 63-64 of the

Class Action Complaint. DEFENDANTS' ACTIONS AND DELIBERATE INDIFFERENCE 16. Intervenor-Plaintiff incorporates by reference Paragraphs 65-69 of the Class

Action Complaint. INJUNCTIVE AND DECLARATORY RELIEF 17. Intervenor-Plaintiff incorporates by reference Paragraphs 70-71 of the Class

Action Complaint. EXHAUSTION OF ADMINISTRATIVE REMEDIES 18. There are no administrative remedies available to the Intervenor-Plaintiff. See

Order Denying Class Certification and Denying Motion to Dismiss or for Summary Judgment, July 29, 2003, at 9 ("The defendants' motion to dismiss or for summary judgment based on a failure to exhaust administrative remedies is denied because there is no available administrative remedy which the plaintiffs and intervenors could have used for relief'). In any event, Intervenor-Plaintiff has exhausted his administrative rights as far as he is able to do so, through grievances and appeals. The grievance and responses thereto, and appeals and responses thereto are attached hereto as Exhibits 1 through 9, and are incorporated herein by reference. Appeals of grievances reflected in Exhibits 1, 7, 8, and 9, have been perfected, but no copies are attached

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because the Jail personnel have not returned the necessary papers to Intervenor-Plaintiff. the grievance reflected in Exhibit 3 was not answered, but was appealed and the appeal was responded to. The grievance reflected in Exhibit 5 was not appealed because Jail staff informed Intervenor-Plaintiff that it was not grievable. PRAYER FOR RELIEF 19. Intervenor-Plaintiff incorporates by reference Paragraphs 73-79 of the Class

Action Complaint.

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David C. Fathi Senior Staff Counsel The National Prison Project of the ACLU Foundation, Inc. 915 15th Street NW, 7th Floor Washington, D.C. 20005 Telephone: (202) 548-6609 E-mail: [email protected] Mark Silverstein Legal Director American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado 400 Corona Street Denver, Colorado 80218 Telephone: (303) 777-5482 E-mail: [email protected]

s/ Thomas S. Nichols Thomas S. Nichols DAVIS GRAHAM & STUBBS LLP In cooperation with the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Colorado 1550 Seventeenth Street, Suite 500 Denver, Colorado 80202 DC BOX 03 Telephone: (303) 892-9400 FAX: (303) 893-1379 E-mail: [email protected] Attorneys for Plaintiffs and Intervenor-Plaintiffs

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