A staff member at a Greeley youth detention center allegedly provided drugs to a 16-year-old boy housed at the facility the night before he suffered a medical emergency last month, internal state incident reports show. The teen died two weeks later.
At 6:49 a.m. on Oct. 21, staff at the found the unresponsive teen in his room, according to an incident report written by facility staff and reviewed by The Denver Post. Personnel administered , a medication that reverses opioid overdoses, and performed CPR until emergency responders arrived, according to the report.
The youth, who has not been publicly identified, was transported to in Greeley. He died Nov. 4.
Greeley police last month , but only described the incident as a “medical emergency.” Authorities had initially responded to the detention center on reports of a contraband narcotics violation, police previously said.
Colorado’s , which runs the facility, has not said how the teen died. While the reports reviewed by The Post don’t refer to the incident as an overdose, there are indications narcotics were involved. The reports shed additional light on a death that state officials have declined to discuss.
The day the teen was found unresponsive, leadership at Platte Valley received information about staff bringing contraband narcotics into the facility, according to another incident report. Two days later, a separate report informed the facility director that an employee on Oct. 20 provided “percs” — a street name for , a highly addictive opioid-based painkiller — to the same youth who later suffered the medical emergency.
It’s not known whether the Weld County coroner has ruled on the cause and manner of the 16-year-old’s death or completed a toxicology report, which can take weeks or even months. The Weld County Coroner’s Office did not respond to a request from The Post for information about the teen’s death.
It’s also not clear whether the Platte Valley staffer identified in the incident report reviewed by The Post has been disciplined or is being investigated.
State officials declined to comment on the incident reports reviewed by The Post or the allegations that staff brought drugs into the facility. A spokesperson for the Weld County District Attorney’s Office said it doesn’t have a case against anyone in connection with the youth’s death.
A Division of Youth spokesperson told The Post last week that the state is not aware of any youth deaths due to overdoses in state-run detention facilities within at least the last 30 years. That statement remains accurate “as of today,” AnneMarie Harper, the department spokesperson, said Wednesday.
At least seven young people in Colorado youth detention centers were hospitalized following overdose-related emergency calls this year, including three teens who required life-saving naloxone at a Colorado Springs facility on the same day over the summer, The Post reported last month.
The declined to provide The Post with any information about overdoses at the state’s youth detention facilities, citing child privacy laws. The department also said it doesn’t track the number of overdoses at its facilities.
The told the Department of Human Services in a letter last month that it had “serious safety concerns” regarding Platte Valley and the in Colorado Springs.
Division of Youth Services staff have introduced illegal drugs into detention centers and provided drugs directly to youth, the ombudsman’s letter alleges. Nearly 30 youth have ingested illicit substances, several have overdosed and one youth has died as a result of the drugs being smuggled into the facilities, the letter alleges.
The ombudsman’s office would not say whether the fatality referenced in the letter was the Greeley teen who died last month.
The ombudsman, Stephanie Villafuerte, said the Department of Human Services has not responded to her office’s letter.
