Huerfano County and a Pueblo-based healthcare provider will pay $10.2 million to the estate of a man who died in the southern Colorado county’s jail three years ago after officers broke his ribs and failed to give him needed medical treatment despite his pleas for help over eight days.
Michael Burch, 69, died inside the Huerfano County Detention Center on April 4, 2023, from complications of blunt force trauma to his chest, the coroner found. Burch suffered six badly broken ribs, a collapsed lung, internal bleeding and bruised intestines after a jail detention officer on March 28, 2023.
Huefano County and the sheriff’s office will pay Burch’s estate $9.2 million, while Health Care Partners Foundation Inc. — the healthcare provider for the jail at the time — will pay an additional $1 million, according to a settlement agreement.
Huerfano County Sheriff Bruce Newman did not return a request for comment Wednesday.
Rita Torres, CEO of Health Care Partners Foundation, said the nonprofit follows national standards for correctional care and placed blame for Burch’s death on the sheriff’s office, because, she said, officers determined Burch was too dangerous to receive medical care.
“We try to evaluate someone who comes into booking within 24 hours, but we are not allowed to do so if the sheriff’s department thinks there is a danger to any of our staff, so we were not able to do the formal assessments because of the sheriff’s department not allowing us to see him,” she said.
Burch, a former correctional officer who moved to Colorado for retirement, was in the middle of a mental health crisis when he was jailed. He told deputies the devil was talking to him and sometimes ranted incoherently. After tackling Burch over his use of a pencil inside the jail cell, the officers largely ignored his requests for medical treatment with a general attitude that the man was deranged.
Immediately after Burch was tackled and handcuffed on the floor of his cell, surveillance footage in the jail showed Captain Lea Vigil turn to a medical provider and make a circular motion with her finger by her head as she said, “Batshit.”
The officers maintained that approach for the next week, even as a large black bruise spread across Burch’s torso. Burch told an officer he’d nearly died and repeatedly asked for help.
Five days after his injuries, Burch did have a telehealth visit with a Health Care Partners Foundation nurse practitioner who was out of state. The nurse practitioner did not identify his rib injuries and instead focused the visit on Burch’s mental health, according to the lawsuit.
Torres said Wednesday that the nurse practitioner could not fully examine Burch because he was “chained up,” and that Burch told her he was not in any pain that day. She said the medical providers were unaware of his broken ribs, even though Burch had complained about his ribs for days.
Burch’s attorneys alleged in the lawsuit that the jail’s medical providers should have taken more thorough action — including, at the least, a visual examination — to identify Burch’s injuries.
Burch received no treatment for his rib injuries, attorneys for his estate alleged. He collapsed and died in his cell two days later.
Omeed Azmoudeh, an attorney for Burch’s family, said in a news conference Wednesday that Burch’s death was a “horrific abuse of power” and called for the sheriff to resign.
Michelle DeBord, Burch’s daughter, recounted during Wednesday’s news conference that her father strove to remember the humanity of the people behind bars during his career as a correctional officer in California.
“They would always say, ‘Remember we’re on the right side of the bars, and we have the key,’ ” she said of her father and his colleagues. “But also to remember that, that guy in there is someone’s son, is somebody’s friend, somebody’s brother. That is something my dad was not afforded at the time of his death.”
