The family of Jennifer Lobato, a mother of seven children who died of apparent opioid withdrawal at the Jefferson County jail last year after being arrested on a shoplifting charge, will receive $2.5 million from the county to settle a civil rights lawsuit.
David Lane, who represents Lobato’s family, said final court approval of the deal was made Wednesday.
“Jails are obligated to care for the serious medical needs of their inmates,” Lane said. “Given the explosion of opioids in our society today, there is a percentage of people who are going to experience fatal withdrawal. If these jails are not training people to know the signs of serious distress, there are going to be fatalities.”
Lobato, 37, who was being held at the jail in March 2015 on suspicion of shoplifting $57 of merchandise from a Lakewood Old Navy store, had no known major medical problems before her death.
She first reported feeling ill the morning of March 2, 2015, as she was preparing for a court appearance in her case, telling a deputy she felt too unwell to go. She was encouraged by a guard to appear before a judge. And when she returned to the jail, Lobato again said she was sick, telling the staff she was withdrawing from a drug, officials say.
Authorities have said she was scheduled to be seen for medical care during normal rounds that night, but at 7:15 p.m. March 2, 2015, Lobato’s cellmate noticed she wasn’t moving. The cellmate pushed an emergency button in their cell to notify deputies. Efforts to revive Lobato were fruitless.
The county coroner said Lobato died of cardiac arrest prompted by repeated vomiting.
Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Shrader told The Denver Post that a deputy said to Lobato something to the effect of, “That’s why you shouldn’t do drugs,” when she was in medical distress. Officials say the exact remarks aren’t known.
The sheriff’s office said Lobato did not indicate she suffered from addiction or was facing withdrawal when she was booked into the jail, although the arrest affidavit says she told an officer the day of her arrest that she was a heroin addict and was “having a hard time.”
Six Jefferson County sheriff’s jail deputies were issued written reprimands in the wake of Lobato’s death and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office also instituted policy changes.
“The death of Jennifer Lobato was a tragic case and our thoughts remain with the Lobato family,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement Wednesday. “In response to Ms. Lobato’s passing, the Sheriff’s Office has changed the drug withdrawal evaluation and treatment processes in the jail. The Sheriff’s Office is committed to providing a safe environment for inmates in the jail and is working with its medical staff, medical contractor, and an independent medical auditor to continue to evaluate medical care in the jail.”
Lane said a lawsuit in Lobato’s death against Correct Care Solutions, the private medical contractor at the jail when Lobato died, remains ongoing. A Correct Care representative did not immediately comment.
A similar suit has been filed by Lane on behalf of the family of 25-year-old Tyler Tabor. who died May 2015 at the Adams County jail as he apparently suffered through the symptoms of withdrawal. An autopsy showed he died of dehydration.
Lane called the Lobato and Tabor suits “very, very, very similar cases.”
