County named in wrongful death suit

The family of a Topeka man who died in May of 2013 after being placed in the Jackson County Detention Center on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs is suing the county for “gross negligence” in the events that allegedly led to his death, according to documents filed in Jackson County District Court.

According to the civil court case, the widow, son and daughter of Glen E. Ortiz Sr., a 54-year-old construction worker from Topeka who died May 27, 2013, at a Topeka hospital after being transferred there eight days earlier by Jackson County EMS personnel, are seeking damages “in excess of $75,000” in the suit, which alleges medical malpractice. 

The Jackson County Commission, Sheriff Tim Morse and the jail division of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, Jackson County EMS and individual staff members from the latter two agencies were all named as defendants in the original petition, although the jail has since been dismissed as a defendant.

The suit was filed in December 2014 in Shawnee County District Court, but a motion by the defendants for a change of venue to Jackson County was granted on Feb. 9, it was reported.

Speaking on behalf of Jackson County EMS, co-owner and operator Jay Watkins said the agency would decline comment on the case at this time. Morse, however, said he was “pleased the court has transferred this matter back to the proper court of jurisdiction.”

Morse also said that while he could not comment on other particulars of the event cited in the court case, his department does not agree with the plaintiffs’ allegations. He also defended the daily work of his employees and asserted that his staff did not contribute to Ortiz’ death.

“Our corrections staff does an excellent job of booking, monitoring and housing more than 1500 inmates a year,” Morse said. “Over the years, the jail has developed one of the most proactive inmate screening processes in the area and has provided sufficient correctional inmate health care.”

Also named as defendants in the case were Jackson County corrections officers Steve Tims, Taarna Burk (Patterson), Robbie Gragg, Brian Elliott and William Miller and Jackson County EMS personnel James O’Toole and Jacque Jacobsen.

According to court documents, Ortiz was finishing a late overnight shift for Koss Construction Corporation and was driving home early in the morning on May 19, 2013. Court documents also state that “upon information and belief,” Ortiz had “consumed beer after work” and had parked his vehicle in the parking lot at 7-Eleven in Holton, where Holton police officer Jeff Draper found him “in a disoriented mental condition” and arrested him; Morse stated that the arrest occurred at or shortly after 7:55 a.m.

As Draper and Jackson County Deputy Heath DeLany were taking Ortiz to the Jackson County Detention Center, according to court documents, Ortiz “lost consciousness in the back of the patrol car.” The booking officer at the detention center allegedly reported that he could not complete booking on Ortiz because he “was impaired and kept falling asleep,” court documents said.

Jackson County EMS personnel O’Toole and Jacobsen were called to the detention center to examine Ortiz, who reported him to be “in a deep sleep” but “semi-responsive to stimuli,” it was noted. After drawing blood from Ortiz, Jacobsen and Tims moved Ortiz to a holding cell and placed him on his side on a mattress “to prevent aspiration,” court documents said.

Court documents allege that O’Toole and Jacobsen “reached the conclusion that Mr. Ortiz was only heavily intoxicated,” and the EMS personnel advised jail workers to “keep an eye on Mr. Ortiz” before leaving. It was alleged that between 11:21 a.m. that day, when the EMS personnel left, and sometime after 4 p.m., jail logs “that no one checked on Mr. Ortiz.”

At about 4:15 p.m. that day, according to court documents, Elliott reported that he checked on Ortiz, “who was lying face-down and snoring,” and no further action was taken until about 6:02 p.m., when the duty officer reported that Ortiz “had been sleeping all day and the officer thought it was a result of intoxication.”

Less than half an hour later, Burk, Miller and Elliott heard jail inmates yelling that someone in the holding cell needed help, and they found Ortiz in “a pool of brownish blood,” court documents said.

EMS personnel were called back to the jail and determined that Ortiz needed to go to a hospital, and Burk filled out an OR (own recognizance) bond in Ortiz’ name so he could be released to get medical treatment. The bond was issued by Jackson County District Court Judge Micheal Ireland, it was reported.

Ortiz was taken to Stormont-Vail Regional Medical Center in Topeka, where he was placed on a life-support system. His family would later make a decision to take him off life support, and he died May 27, 2013.

The plaintiffs — Marie A. Ortiz, his widow, acting as administratrix of his estate, and as an heir-at-law along with son Glen Ortiz Jr. and daughter Alexandra J. Teske — assert that O’Toole and Jacobsen were “professionally negligent” in not recognizing Ortiz’ present condition and taking him to a hospital immediately, as well as in “merely instruct(ing) the jail to keep an eye on Mr. Ortiz.”

The corrections officers listed as defendants were also accused of negligence in reportedly not keeping an eye on Ortiz for six and a half hours as a “failure to follow instructions” given by the EMS personnel. Instead, the plaintiffs assert, the officers “left him to die in his cell.”

However, apart from the plaintiffs’ assertions of “negligence” and the defendants’ response that Ortiz’ death was caused by “an intervening act that supersedes any negligence” on their part, no cause of death is listed in court documents.

Plaintiffs also claimed that the sheriff’s department acted in a fraudulent manner in transferring Ortiz out of jail via the OR bond “to avoid paying his medical bill.” As of Feb. 9, the bill at Stormont-Vail for the care of Ortiz was listed at $79,955.32, it was reported.

Court documents state that the defendants, through Topeka attorneys Samuel A. Green and David R. Cooper, filed a motion for a change of venue from Shawnee County to Jackson County, in January, as “all alleged wrongful acts or omissions occurred in Jackson County.” Meagan L. Patterson and Kelly M. Cochran of Prairie Village also were listed in court documents as attorneys of record for Jackson County EMS.

Plaintiffs opposed the venue change, asserting that Shawnee County was the rightful venue as Ortiz died in that county. The plaintiffs also claimed that selection of jurors for a trial would be more difficult in Jackson County “owing to the facts of familiarity of potential jurors with all defendants and the difficulty of obtaining a fair and impartial jury.”

As of Friday, court records did not indicate a date for further action on the case.