Jailers ignored Coast woman’s pleas for help, lawsuit says. She died of a drug overdose.
Hancock County has settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the family of a 37-year-old woman who died of a drug overdose after her arrest for a misdemeanor drug violation.
Wendy Elizabeth Caspolich, of Bay St. Louis, died despite her pleas for Hancock County corrections officers to get her medical help before, during and after she was booked into the Hancock County jail on a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia on Feb. 27, 2017.
Caspolich was taken to Hancock County Medical Center, now Ochsner Medical Center, about three hours after she was booked into the jail. The sheriff’s department said at the time she had swallowed an unknown amount of methamphetamine and possibly other drugs.
Attorney Daniel Waide filed the lawsuit in federal court in Gulfport on behalf of Caspolich’s daughter, Shaylynn Deroche.
In addition to Hancock County, the suit named the Bay St. Louis hospital as a defendant, claiming the hospital failed to provide appropriate care for a drug overdose. Caspolich got addicted to painkillers following a medical procedure and later ended up using other illegal drugs to help feed that addiction, according to the lawsuit.
Hancock County attorney Gary Yarborough Jr. said the county settled the lawsuit for $13,000 but did so “solely for economic purposes and reasons and to avoid additional legal costs.”
The county, he said, did not admit any liability.
The Hancock drug arrest
Caspolich was a passenger in a car stopped by a Hancock County deputy late on the evening of Feb. 26, 2017.
After the stop, Caspolich swallowed some narcotics in the car to avoid an arrest on a more serious drug charge.
At 12:44 a.m. on Feb. 27, 2017, deputies booked her into the jail, but Caspolich was so impaired that she was in and out of consciousness during the booking process, the lawsuit said.
Her mugshot showed her physical condition, her impairment and urgent need for medical assistance, the suit said.
After being booked into the jail, deputies placed Caspolich into a holding cell along with another prisoner, where her condition would quickly deteriorate.
Lawsuit: Pleas for help ignored
Shortly after Caspolich was placed in a holding cell, her cellmate started banging on the door and crying out for jailers to get medical help for Caspolich.
Hancock County jailers ignored the cellmate’s pleas for help and told her to stop banging on the door and making noise, according to the lawsuit, and would later enter the cell and try unsuccessfully to get a blood pressure reading before leaving Caspolich in the cell.
Caspolich’s condition continued to decline and her cellmate started banging on the door and again and “begging” jail staff to help the inmate.
Instead of providing aid to Caspolich, the lawsuit said, jailers moved the cellmate to another cell and left Caspolich alone in the holding cell to fend for herself.
After Caspolich’s health deteriorated to the point where she needed emergency medical attention, Sheriff Ricky Adam approved her release from custody and transport to the hospital at 2:24 a.m., according to the lawsuit.
The sheriff’s department said Caspolich was able to walk into the emergency room on her own authority.
Jail records indicate she was booked at 12:44 a.m. and released at 2:24 a.m. She died a short time later.
At the time of her death, the sheriff’s department said it wasn’t uncommon to release misdemeanor offenders for medical reasons. An autopsy later confirmed her cause of death.
Waide and Deroche declined to comment on the settlement.
This story was originally published October 26, 2021 at 5:50 AM.
