It’s been a year and a half since 24-year-old Emily Rice bled to death in her Denver jail cell and the city’s still stonewalling.
What is this, the Nixon administration?
“Talk about an issue of public interest,” said Mari Newman, one of the attorneys representing Emily’s parents in a $10 million wrongful death suit against the city. “This could have been any of us.”
The story of Emily’s death is horrifying.
On Feb. 17, 2006, the young woman went out for drinks with friends after her shift as a waitress at Herman’s Hideaway. About 6:45 the next morning, she was involved in a collision near South Elm Street and East Hampden Avenue.
Police charged her with DUI – her blood alcohol level was 0.121 – and with driving under a license suspended for failure to pay restitution in a traffic case, and she was taken to Denver Health Medical Center.
Somehow emergency-room personnel there failed to notice that she had a ruptured spleen and lacerations of her liver, and they released her to the custody of sheriff’s deputies. “They really just whisked her through there without even doing a baseline evaluation,” Newman said.
Things went downhill from there.
During the jail intake process, Emily passed out and “the nurse stood over her and told her to quit being so dramatic,” Newman said. Then she was placed in a cell and ignored as she begged for help all night.
“The other women in the facility started banging their shoes against the window crying out for help for her,” the lawyer said. None came.
Around 4:30 a.m., guards called Emily for breakfast, which she declined because she said she couldn’t move her legs. That still didn’t seem to spark any concern from the jail staff.
At 6:10 a.m. Emily was found unresponsive.
She was pronounced dead on arrival at Denver Health.
“This was not negligence. It goes way beyond that,” said Newman. “The absolute lack of humanity is just staggering.”
Emily’s mother, Susan Garber, said repeated attempts by the family to communicate with the city have been ignored.
“My sister called people and e-mailed people asking someone to please answer us,” she said. She attempted to contact Mayor John Hickenlooper and Public Safety Manager Al LaCabe.
In response, the aunt got a note saying, “Thank you for your interest in HUD housing,” Garber said.
“You look at this stuff and wonder who’s driving the bus.”
Roy Rice, Emily’s father, said he and Garber would not have filed suit against the city if they’d been given any indication that someone would be held accountable in their daughter’s death.
It wasn’t happening.
Last October, Rice met with an assistant district attorney who told him that the criminal investigation was done and no charges would be filed.
“He basically said we needed to sue them,” Rice said. He said their “best course of action” was through the civil system.
“No one’s been disciplined, no one’s been fired, no one’s even been reprimanded as far as we know,” Rice said. “It’s all damage control.”
And not particularly skillful damage control at that.
The Denver Post’s Christopher N. Osher reported Sunday that jail personnel falsified reports about the frequency of rounds made among inmates that night even though there are witnesses and videotapes to prove they didn’t happen.
“It’s been coverup after coverup,” Garber said.
For parents still grieving the loss of their daughter, the treatment is unconscionable.
“They say the criminal investigation is closed, but they can’t talk to us because some other investigation is still under way. But what investigation is it? The investigation to find some way to cover their butts?” asked Rice.
On Monday, the runaround continued.
The city attorney’s office referred my request for comment to the mayor’s office, which responded via e-mail.
“Given the ongoing nature of the investigations and pending litigation, I’m unable to provide any comments but have forwarded your inquiry to the city attorney’s office …,” wrote spokeswoman Lindy Eichenbaum Lent.
I expect a note about HUD housing any minute.
Diane Carman’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Reach her at 303-954-1489 or dcarman@denverpost.com.
