A lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in the 2013 death of a man who died of a heart attack in the Summit County jail following his arrest for intoxication.
Denver attorney David Lane filed the lawsuit, which named Summit County Sheriff John Minor among eight other defendants, on behalf of the children of Zachary Moffitt.
According to Lane, Moffitt was arrested in July, 2013, in the parking lot of the Summit County Medical Center where he had been checked in with a blood alcohol level of .392 , almost five times over the legal limit.
The lawsuit says Moffitt unplugged his IV, got dressed and walked out of the hospital believing he did not need medical care. Hospital security called the sheriff, with a deputy returning Moffitt to the jail for violating the terms of a court order mandating sobriety.
According to the lawsuit, sometime over the next three days, Moffitt became ill. His pleas for help were ignored, the lawsuit said, and he died of cardiac arrest.
“If any of the defendants had initiated an appropriate medical intervention on behalf of Mr. Moffitt, he would be alive today,” according to the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs are asking for an unspecified amount of money.
A spokeswoman for the Summit County Sheriff’s Office said Minor nor the department would “comment on the pending litigation, but we’re planning on rigorously defending ourselves against the allegations.”
The spokeswoman said the facts behind Moffitt’s death were investigated by both the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the findings are currently being reviewed by the Summit County District Attorney’s Office and the county coroner.