Woman wins $975,000 years after giving birth in jail
SEATTLE - A woman has won $975,000 in a federal jury trial, 14 years after giving birth on the floor of a cell at the King County jail.
A jury agreed Friday on nine of 10 counts in Imka Pope's civil rights case against King County. Pope says jail nurses and corrections officers violated her civil rights in 1997 by dismissing her claims that she was pregnant.
She had been arrested for sleeping on a bench at a Metro bus stop. In the lawsuit she filed in 2007, Pope said jail health officials locked her in a cell and ignored her for six days. She gave birth alone - painfully, without medical help, and on the floor.
Lawyers for the woman say the case illustrates a history of poor medical care at the King County Jail. The downtown jail was the target of a blistering Department of Justice report in 2007, which found failures in medical assessment of inmates, suicide prevention and safeguards against jailer abuse.
"Once booked, the jail engaged in a pattern of deliberate indifference towards Ms. Pope," her lawyers wrote in a trial brief filed last week. They said Pope was clearly delusional - talking to herself in a jumble of profane words - and obviously pregnant.
But court documents show that only one staffer noted in jail records that Pope appeared pregnant. Six other staffers, including nurses and officers, took no notice of Pope's pregnancy during their interactions with her. They also made little effort to evaluate or treat her mental illness, Pope's lawyers said.
"Instead, Ms. Pope was locked in a jail cell and ignored for six days," they wrote.
On Nov. 21, 1997, the day of the birth, Pope said she went into labor and repeatedly begged an officer for help through the intercom in her cell.
"Please help me, please help me," she said she told the officer. But the guard said he didn't believe she was pregnant, Pope alleges. Another guard making rounds saw Pope squatting in her cell and asked what was wrong. She told him she was having labor pains.
But according to lawyers for King County, the officer decided Pope was not in "imminent danger" and left to continue his rounds.
"Alone, terrified, in terrible pain and denied help, Ms. Pope gave birth on the floor of her cell," her lawyers wrote. It was the sound of her baby's cry that summoned the officer back a short while later.
King County lawyers argued the jail nurses had met care standards, which did not require a physical exam or pregnancy test for Pope. They said it was Pope who had hid her pregnancy from staffers, by being uncommunicative and verbally abusive.
"During booking, Ms. Pope was unwilling, not unable, to answer basic questions about her health status, including the question of whether she was pregnant," the county's lawyers wrote in their trial brief.
They said officers had acted reasonably toward Pope and that she had suffered no injury.
But jurors disagreed, awarding Ms. Pope $975,000 to compensate for the loss of her civil rights.
Her mental illness has delayed the case. It went to trial once previously, but at that time Pope was involuntarily committed to Harborview Medical Center.
A jury agreed Friday on nine of 10 counts in Imka Pope's civil rights case against King County. Pope says jail nurses and corrections officers violated her civil rights in 1997 by dismissing her claims that she was pregnant.
She had been arrested for sleeping on a bench at a Metro bus stop. In the lawsuit she filed in 2007, Pope said jail health officials locked her in a cell and ignored her for six days. She gave birth alone - painfully, without medical help, and on the floor.
Lawyers for the woman say the case illustrates a history of poor medical care at the King County Jail. The downtown jail was the target of a blistering Department of Justice report in 2007, which found failures in medical assessment of inmates, suicide prevention and safeguards against jailer abuse.
"Once booked, the jail engaged in a pattern of deliberate indifference towards Ms. Pope," her lawyers wrote in a trial brief filed last week. They said Pope was clearly delusional - talking to herself in a jumble of profane words - and obviously pregnant.
But court documents show that only one staffer noted in jail records that Pope appeared pregnant. Six other staffers, including nurses and officers, took no notice of Pope's pregnancy during their interactions with her. They also made little effort to evaluate or treat her mental illness, Pope's lawyers said.
"Instead, Ms. Pope was locked in a jail cell and ignored for six days," they wrote.
On Nov. 21, 1997, the day of the birth, Pope said she went into labor and repeatedly begged an officer for help through the intercom in her cell.
"Please help me, please help me," she said she told the officer. But the guard said he didn't believe she was pregnant, Pope alleges. Another guard making rounds saw Pope squatting in her cell and asked what was wrong. She told him she was having labor pains.
But according to lawyers for King County, the officer decided Pope was not in "imminent danger" and left to continue his rounds.
"Alone, terrified, in terrible pain and denied help, Ms. Pope gave birth on the floor of her cell," her lawyers wrote. It was the sound of her baby's cry that summoned the officer back a short while later.
King County lawyers argued the jail nurses had met care standards, which did not require a physical exam or pregnancy test for Pope. They said it was Pope who had hid her pregnancy from staffers, by being uncommunicative and verbally abusive.
"During booking, Ms. Pope was unwilling, not unable, to answer basic questions about her health status, including the question of whether she was pregnant," the county's lawyers wrote in their trial brief.
They said officers had acted reasonably toward Pope and that she had suffered no injury.
But jurors disagreed, awarding Ms. Pope $975,000 to compensate for the loss of her civil rights.
Her mental illness has delayed the case. It went to trial once previously, but at that time Pope was involuntarily committed to Harborview Medical Center.
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