Whitney Bermes with Bozeman Daily did a fine job on the article concerning the death of Kathryn Leibrock-Josephs, an excerpt found below.
WHITNEY BERMES, Chronicle Staff Writer?|Posted:?Saturday, July 21, 2012 12:15 am
?The family of a woman who died while she was an inmate at the Gallatin?County jail?wants details surrounding the woman?s death released to the public.
Family members of Kathryn Leibrock-Josephs filed a brief in Gallatin County?District Court?earlier this month accusing?County Attorney?Marty Lambert?and then-Sheriff Jim Cashell of hiding information from the public for ?their own personal reasons.?
?It must be something personal on their side,??said attorney?Jim Kommers.??What that is, I don?t know.?
Earlier this year, Josephs settled a federal?civil lawsuit?for $2 million, in which he claimed that jailers failed to provide Leibrock-Josephs adequate medical care, which led to her death.
Once the lawsuit was settled, Kommers said the family thought the confidential criminal evidence would be available to the public. But Lambert objected, Kommers said.
The family now wants a protective order placed on evidence from the federal case to be lifted so it can be made public.
?The public has a right to know and they?re not being told,? Kommers said.?
Excerpt Only, To Continue Reading:?http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/crime/article_216bdd24-d2e8-11e1-9aef-001a4bcf887a.html
Related:?http://montanacorruption.org/2012/07/21/what-information-is-the-montana-county-attorneys-trying-to-hide/
- This is a comment that was submitted from the family of the inmate that died in a Gallatin jail on our blog just today. ?It is on the comment section on the above link. ?But feeling this families pain that not even $2 million can fix I felt to add it in a follow-up post as some do not read the comments section. ?It is the only way that we can honor the family having the right to speak on this issue.?
The facts surrounding the tragic death of my step daughter are relatively simple, and, more importantly, I had hoped would be proven in court. On the night before Thanksgiving 2005, Kathryn Leibrock-Josephs, was arrested by Bozeman Police for an alleged incident of abuse with my six year old grandson. Just after the time of her arrest, my son in law toured the house with City of Bozeman Police Officer Henninger, and informed him of the fact that Kathryn was an alcoholic and no doubt inebriated at the time of her arrest. While none of this information was conveyed to the staff at the Gallatin County Detention Center (GCDC), it appears the GCDC must have understood that alcohol was a problem with Kathryn, as the officers that initially received her at the jail commented on her state of inebriation, and more than two hours after her incarceration, she was still deemed by jail staff to be too drunk for booking.
Given the numerous references in the GCDC manual to the potential health concerns associated with an inmate who arrives at the jail under the influence of alcohol, it seems safe to assume that GCDC staff should have thus known that Kathryn was ripe for problems, regardless of what was, or what was not said to them by Bozeman Police regarding Kathryn?s condition upon her arrest.
Because she was arrested on the night before Thanksgiving, the courts were closed on that Thursday. Because the City of Bozeman violated state law regarding the days on which courts are required to be open, by giving the day off to all City Employees ? including City Court workers, on the Friday following Thanksgiving, the city court where Kathryn was to be arraigned remained closed for that following Friday as well. And though there were many alternative means available to ensure that Kathryn?s legally protected right to a speedy appearance before a judge was met, (which in her case was also a necessary event for her to gain her release on bond, due to the nature of her arrest for family member assault), including City judges on call, and other local judicial venues which were in operation on that Friday after Thanksgiving, none were called by GCDC staff in regards to Kathryn.
Accordingly, she was to remain in the GCDC until the following Monday, when it was assumed she would finally see a judge. Unfortunately, she died prior to this, early on that Sunday morning, from the ravaging affects of alcohol withdrawal syndrome, (AWS), which went untreated for the entire length of Kathryn?s 3 ? day stay in the jail. For your reference, since I assume you know as little as I once did about this condition, AWS is a condition which frequently occurs for alcoholics who quit cold turkey. It includes a series of symptoms otherwise known as the DT?s or delirium tremors, commonly indicated by the existence of any of the following: hallucinations, loss of appetite, loss of responsiveness, periods of chills or hot flashes and seizures. AWS is always wrenchingly painful, and potentially fatal, which is why if one does attempt to quit drinking ? cold turkey, they must at all times be attended to by a qualified medical provider. This is especially true in a jail setting, as incarceration is the third leading cause of death among those who do suffer from AWS.
In spite of her arrest, shortly after her incarceration, Kathryn is her normal lively self. She calls her mother several times through the night Wednesday and early Thursday, and is nothing short of charming to her booking officer. She even has a shower. And she is otherwise fully engaged in the effort to find a lawyer and get herself out of jail. Shortly thereafter, however, her condition changes for the worse, as the early affects of AWS begin to set in, (it generally commences within 12 to 24 hours following the sufferer?s last drink, which was the case with Kathryn). By Thursday night, at approximately 7:00 p.m., she is seen by officer Rod Young as having what can only be described as a hallucination, during which she is heard muttering the words, ?please don?t hurt me ? please don?t hurt me?, repeatedly, over and over. Officer Young attempts to interact with her, and calm her. For approximately 20 minutes he watches her bizarre behavior, and attempts to talk to her. But for all of his efforts, Officer Young is convinced Kathryn has no cognizance of his presence while he is with her. And he is certain she is not sleeping during this noted Thursday evening encounter. He explains all of this to Sergeant Bishop, who deems this episode neither concerning to Kathryn?s health, nor material enough to warrant the writing of an Incident Report.
Thereafter, Kathryn continues to endure the noted painful, and debilitating affects of AWS. She does not eat. She does not drink. She does not do anything in fact, accept lie on her bunk, in a state of total non-responsiveness, for close to three days, during which time jailers know she is suffering, and know too she has a need for a heart medicine she is not getting. The medical provider to GCDC, Spectrum Medical, also knows of Kathryn?s need for medicine. And though a nurse is on staff, and goes to the jail on Friday, and even gives Kathryn a ?kite?, or request form for her medicine, she never actually sees her, and Kathryn never does get her medicine. Nor does she know that Kathryn is an alcoholic, or even that she came in to the jail inebriated.
That there is a lack of a GCDC record indicating Kathryn?s problems with alcohol, in spite of the fact that she arrived at the jail too drunk to be booked, is due much in part to the fact that the GCDC practices a method of booking inmates that is at odds not just with the GCDC manual, but any common standard for what one might call good jailing practices. Presumably when the GCDC staff is too busy from too many inmates, or understaffed, or just not interested in booking another inmate at a given moment, they do what they refer to as a ?paper booking?, which generally represents the recording of only the most cursory information about an inmate, such as their name and address, so as to allow the inmate to be immediately incarnated, and the jailers time to accommodate this new booking at a point most convenient to them. In Kathryn?s case, this meant that her booking took place over 12 hours after her arrival at the jail, by which point the signs of her prior night?s inebriation were all but gone. The GCDC booking officer blamed Kathryn for lying as the reason the information was recorded improperly. To this day, even after Kathryn?s death, she stands by her methods, and maintains that she sees no problem with the habit of ?paper bookings?, which she refers to as a ?courtesy? between jailers, one that helps the entire staff best manage their many demands.
But of course the information matters. For Kathryn is an alcoholic, and as the GCDC manual so instructs, prone to the fatal affects of AWS, which indeed do manifest themselves in Kathryn in ways both cruel and obvious. It is so obvious in fact that Kathryn is sick, that by Saturday night, when Officer Jablonski transfers Kathryn from cell 102 to 103, approximately 1 ? hours prior to her subsequent collapse, she later recounts how she knew at the time a nurse should have been called, and that she believed her Sergeant at the time, Greg Bishop, to have understood the same. And why not? For from the moment they enter her cell that late Saturday night, it is clear things were not right with Kathryn.
The jailers are first taken by the stench which emanates from the defecation which has covered Kathryn?s body. They then witness how Kathryn is so unresponsive, that when she is told to move from one cell to another, she makes no response. It takes two jailers applying two wrist locks just to get her to sit up. Once she does, and her head stops wobbling, they get her to stand, only to see that she is so unsteady, the jailers have to keep her from falling. As they hold her up, they note the urine on her gown and on the floor, and the feces that has spread up her back. She is wet too, not just from urine, but perspiration, which soaks her cloths and leaves beads of sweat on her brow. For she is hot, and her breathing noticeably labored. And there is foam too, which pools in the corner of her mouth in a manner that suggests not the simple release of saliva in sleep, but that a seizure has occurred. And as the scene unfolds, Officer Jablonski reminds herself of the fact that Kathryn has not eaten in days and is without her heart medicine. And Officer Bishop knows too that Kathryn has experienced a hallucination just a day or so ago, (though there is no mention of this in her personal chart). In the end, it takes two jailers 20 minutes to get Kathryn from cell 102 to 103. It is a job which, in the case of a normal, healthy inmate, should have been accomplished in two minutes or less by a single jailer.
Sergeant Bishop?s response to this is to again deny Officer Jablonski?s suggestion that an Incident Report be written on the event. He sends her home, (her shift had already ended when this cell transfer occurred) and returns to his office to study-up for an upcoming officer?s exam. For the next hour and a half, Kathryn then proceeds to rock on her bunk bench in a silent, catatonic state, which Officer Bishop observes as he performs his cell checks. Still he does not help her. And then, suddenly at 1:10 a.m., as if gripped by an intuitive impulse that tells him, finally, all might not be right with Kathryn, Sergeant Bishop interrupts his studies on better jailing practices, to go and make an extra check on her. And when he arrives at her cell, he finds Kathryn collapsed on the ground, unconscious and not breathing.
Paramedics are called, and while the staff awaits their arrival, Sergeant Bishop attempts to perform artificial resuscitation. Unfortunately, his protective mouth device fails. So does the next one. Unfortunate too is the fact that no defibrillator is on site to help. Or that there is no doctor ? as is called for in the GCDC manual, to attend to Kathryn?s needs. Perhaps even more unfortunate, is that the medical provider to the jail, Spectrum Medical, does not have, and for some months has not had on staff, a mental health service provider for the GCDC, this in spite of the fact that such services have not only been contracted for by the County through Spectrum, but paid for as well. This is especially relevant as in their contractual plan with the County, the mental health counselor was to have been the agent responsible for the training of GCDC staff in the detection and treatment of substance abuse related problems.
But no such training is provided by Spectrum, or anyone else, not just for this, but any other medical situations the jailers were likely to have experienced in their daily ?care? of the inmates. This absence of medical training exists in spite of the fact that the County paid for such training through its contract with Spectrum, and Spectrum called it out as a critical additive to the jailer?s overall skill set, due both to the limited on-site hours of Spectrum medical personnel at the GCDC, and the many, urgent needs of the inmates. Spectrum feels so strongly about the matter in fact, they have pledged by contract to provide the jailers with training commensurate with that of a ?first responder?.
As he would be the first to tell you, Sergeant Bishop is no first responder. None of the GCDC jailers are. But the real tragedy of Kathryn?s death is that she didn?t need a savvy medical pro in order to have been saved. All she needed was for Sergeant Bishop to have been decent, and somewhat caring, for as I say, any other person, (including the one who was with him at the time of this Saturday night cell transfer) would have known that Kathryn needed help, and presumably would have acted on that knowledge by calling for a nurse or doctor. Of course when she went home for the night, Officer Jablonski assumed Sergeant Bishop would make that call and get Kathryn the help she so obviously needed. Which is why, some days later, when she first learns that no such call has been made on Kathryn?s behalf, and that she has died, Officer Jablonski is devastated. She complains bitterly to her associates, who themselves communicate with their superiors as to the lack of attention to the needs of this inmate. But, as with other such matters, her concerns go without further inquiry by the GCDC into the true causes of this death.
As a family, we struggle with the idea that the GCDC jailers could have been so inhumane as to have let someone die before their eyes without offering assistance of any kind. I don?t think we ever answer the question as to how anyone could be so cruel as Sergeant was, or so careless as Officer Jablonski was as to assume another would step in to assist in what was truly a life and death situation. But judging by the general ineptitude of the GCDC in the overall handling of Kathryn, and the response of County officials to her death, one begins to understand something of the seeds to our loss.
For the instincts of County government to not do the responsible thing are apparent almost from the moment Kathryn dies. Within a day of her death, County officials tell the Montana State Crime Lab, which performs the official autopsy so required of Kathryn, the un-truth that Kathryn was generally fine and cooperative for the entire period of her incarceration, right up until the moment she was found collapsed on her cell floor. As I say, even your own jailer admits that a nurse should have been called, so what are we to make of such an incorrect characterization as was given to the State Crime Lab? That it was an inadvertent error, or part of a more calculated plan to cover up the truth as to what happened to Kathryn Josephs?
In either event, the information is so conveyed, and then not corrected, (even when it is clear that the conclusions of the crime lab in Missoula are based on faulty information). Accordingly, AWS is ruled out as a certain cause of death, (though it is still considered as a possible likely cause) for it is believed by the attending pathologists that no signs of AWS were ever exhibited by Kathryn. So too does our own privately hired pathologist, Dr. Tom Bennett, conclude the same. Until he later learns the truth of the matter, that in suffering almost all of the classical signs of AWS, (hallucinations, loss of appetite, non responsiveness, sweating and chills, and probably a seizure), Kathryn did indeed die of AWS. And a second medical expert has concluded the same.
Nonetheless, County officials seize on the misbegotten ?official? conclusion that AWS is not to blame for Kathryn?s death, by not only claiming their innocence in the matter, but going so far as to say through their misinformed medical expert, that Kathryn?s health was better served for her time spent in jail.
This is a proposition as ludicrous as it is offensive, at least to her family, and presumably anyone else who has respect for either the truth or the dead. Of course County officials remain free of public scrutiny for their misdeeds and lies, due to a protective order they have been given which is itself the result of another un-truth pertaining to an alleged, though non-existent criminal investigation into the matter.
County officials have also tried to cover-up the truth about the facts surrounding Kathryn?s death, by holding an Inquest which omitted so many things relevant to the case, one is compelled to wonder if the County Attorney is carless, or calculating, in his presentation of the affair. The most obvious example of this is that Officer Rod Young is not called to testify about the hallucination he witnessed, even though he is at the Inquest, and it is known to the County Attorney?s office that such an incident in fact occurred. Nor is there any other mention of this event at the Inquest. Nor of the fact that Kathryn had stopped eating and drinking days prior to her death. But perhaps the most striking recasting of reality which occurs at the Inquest, comes in the manner by which Kathryn?s medically concerning level of non-responsiveness is dismissed as merely being the behavior of a relaxed inmate who liked to sleep a lot.
Since Kathryn?s relative lack of responsiveness is a material point, and one which can be easily glossed over without fully appreciating the extent of her lifelessness, it is worth noting that except for the aforementioned hallucination of Thursday night, and another outburst Friday night when Kathryn screamed to another inmate not to trust Sergeant Bishop, and the noted catatonic rocking which immediately preceded her death, there are no observations of Kathryn from Thursday afternoon until her death, doing anything but lying motionless on her bunk and saying nothing. If one did ask her a question she would either ignore it ? or grunt ?no?, as she did in response to the offered services of a legal aid worker who came to the jail that Saturday morning as part of a regular routine to assist inmates with scheduled court appearances.
Also worth noting is the fact that on more than one occasion, according to two independent jail trustee inmates, (which are basically trusted inmates who are given special duties in the jail, like serving meals), Kathryn failed responsiveness tests given by GCDC jail staff as called for by the GCDC manual . The test in question requires that an inmate in a holding cell be forced to make some positive sign of life, and thus responsiveness, even if that be a denial of a meal, when each meal was offered. These eye witnesses, who actually served many of her meals, report that more than once Kathryn did not make such an indication of responsiveness as she was too unresponsive to do anything, including refuse her meal, whereupon the jailers reported to the control room not that the test had been failed, but merely that the meal was refused.
But as I say, none of this is revealed at the Inquest, during which County Attorney Lambert is so convincing in his performance in making us all believe that Kathryn was fine and resting comfortably throughout her stay at the jail, at least until the end, that when the proceedings conclude, my 14 year granddaughter Annie, (who was in attendance), hugs Sergeant Bishop and shares a tear with him, for she thinks he has done all one could have, given what we are told at the Inquest as to Kathryn?s fine condition right up until her collapse.
So vigilant is the County in protecting their secrets about Kathryn?s death, not just from the public, but us as well, that It takes us two years to finally get at the evidence of the case which, as I think you will conclude, tells a decidedly different story than the one peddled by County officials at the Inquest. I am not sure you can grasp how devastating it was though, for my granddaughter to finally learn not just that her mother wasn?t fine until her collapse, as she had been told, but that she had been sick and needed help, and suffered horribly ? and the jailers knew all of this ? and still did not help her. Worse still, was the fact that in learning the truth, Annie understood too well how her trusted County officials had lied to her about the facts of which I speak.
My granddaughter was anxiously awaiting her day in court, when she would be able to tell the world how she misses her mother, and how she feels about a County government that not only allowed her mother to die such a horrible death ? alone in a jail cell ? suffering without aid for days on end from the DTs, but then tried to deny any responsibility for it through a series of lies, misstatements, or misrepresentations. I can only imagine that County officials would not want this grisly tale to be told in court as much as Annie looks forward to it. But from their responses in depositions it is clear that many in positions of authority of County government, including the Commissioners, and the Sheriff, have remained ignorant not just of how our case poses a financial risk to the County for their negligence in Kathryn?s death, but of how it serves as an important indicator of systemic problems within the overall management, operations and culture of County government.
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- Montana if this does not make your heart concerned then maybe you have lost all conscience thought of what is right and what is wrong and maybe have even lost your heart. ?I would hate to think that my fellow Montanans do not care about their citizens in their state. This kind of nonsense is going on everyday in Montana. We know the state no longer cares. ?We hear how they do not have programs implemented but they are still receiving the budget money that was issued for that. ?We hear of inmates not receiving medical treatment all the time. ?We hear of inmates dying all the time while in Montana prisons or jails. ?We hear of the prison in Shelby being very understaffed yet they are being paid for a full staff. ?This has all come about from some greedy people wanting to hoard the money and take short cuts.
- We are a police state that is corrupted. ?We have inmates that do not belong in prison as some of the county attorneys have become slick in their prosecuting manner, not always using ethics. Willing to lie and break rules to gain a conviction.?
- We have Department of Corrections that has taken away visitation from a major portion of the inmate population due to ridiculous reasons where they just don?t want to have to do the job they are paid for. ? They now have cut down the food supply that they are serving inmates. ?Inmates are hungry and this forces them to have to buy canteen if they want to eat but not all men can afford that. ?The families can?t afford to keep sending money for the ?fat cats? of the system. ?They have been bankrupting them. ? There are inmates that have huge holes in the bottom of their shoes but they will not give them state shoes. Inmates are burning up with the heat as they cannot open a door to allow a breeze to come through. ?Some have their windows still bolted from winter and these men are not receiving any air flow. ?Montana your taxes are suppose to take care of this but the system just wants to take more and more for profit. ? It is disgusting. ?And many of these inmates should not even be in there.?
- Montana citizens, this falls on our shoulders. ?It is our responsibility to hold these officials accountable. ?This state is never going to change for the better and become more prosperous for ALL as long as we allow this corruption to continue. ? It has gone on too long. ?They now believe they do not have to answer to anyone. ?The only way you can make them be held accountable is come election time or to have an outside source initiate a full blown investigation. ? What do you think fellow Montana citizens, ?do you still have a heart for your state and the other citizens that are being abused by our system? ?Prisons are for criminals not for state officials to make some extra money by warehousing any Montana citizen that they can put in there to charge for a bed and keep them there.?
To this family I would like to say ?I am so sorry for your loss and what you are going through with this tragedy. ?A tragedy that did not have to happen. Continue your fight for the truth and for that truth to be made known to the public.?
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