Family Will Sue Over Jail Death

The parents of Emily Rae Rice, a woman who died at the city jail, filed a civil lawsuit against Denver Health Medical Center and the city and county of Denver on Monday.

Rice, 24, was injured in a traffic collision at 6:50 a.m. on Feb. 18, 2006. Her blood-alcohol level was 0.121 percent, above the legal limit for drivers in Colorado.

Rice was taken by ambulance to Denver Health and then booked into the jail. Twenty hours later, she was found dead.

An autopsy showed she died from internal bleeding and had a lacerated liver and spleen.

"The city needs to make moves to improve the system," said Darold Killmer, the Rice family attorney. "In this case, the system failed at virtually every turn."

Two doctors, six nurses and 19 sheriff's employees are named in the lawsuit that was filed in Denver District Court alleging that Rice's constant pleas for help were ignored.

The suit says doctors and medical personnel neglected to treat her internal injuries before sending her off to be booked. It also says that once in the jail, nurses and deputies dismissed her complaints and allowed her to suffer until she died.

About 3 p.m., the suit says, Rice told a guard that she was feeling ill and she was allowed to speak to a registered nurse.

The nurse "simply looked at her records and cleared her, telling her that she was drunk and needed to 'sleep it off,"' the lawsuit says. "At this point, Ms. Rice had been in custody for over seven hours since her blood-alcohol was measured at 0.121, and thus could not have been drunk."

Moments later, Rice's eyes rolled to the back of her head and she fainted to the floor, the suit says. A deputy summoned the nurse again and the complaint says the nurse mocked her, told her to "stop being dramatic" and ordered her to stand up.

Denver Post