The immunity that Colorado law broadly affords to government entities does not shield employees of the Rio Blanco County Sheriff s Office from being sued for the death of a jail detainee, Colorado s second-highest court ruled on Thursday.
The immunity that Colorado law broadly affords to government entities does not shield employees of the Rio Blanco County Sheriff s Office from being sued for the death of a jail detainee, Colorado s second-highest court ruled on Thursday.
Rio Blanco County sheriff’s employees did not unconstitutionally ignore the risk of suicide to a woman who died inside the county jail in 2016, the federal appeals court based in Denver has ruled.
Although there were allegations the employees failed to check on Catherine Rowell hourly, as the policy manual required, “the officers’ failure to follow jail procedures does not equate with a constitutional violation,” wrote Senior Judge Paul J. Kelly Jr. in an opinion for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.
The ruling from the three-member appellate panel upheld a lower court judge’s finding that Rowell’s behavior in the jail did not put employees on sufficient notice of her suicidality, and therefore their failure to prevent it did not violate Rowell’s rights.