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| Damaris Rodriquez, pictured with her husband Ray Rodriquez CBS News |
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Disturbing Video Shows Mother-of-five in a Jail Cell Hours Before She 'died of starvation'
Daily Mail
February 12, 2020
Area: Seattle, Tacoma
Disturbing surveillance footage has emerged showing a mother-of-five's final hours after she was locked up in a Washington state jail for four days when her husband called 911 for help while she suffered a mental health episode.
Damaris Rodriguez, 43, was found dead in her cell at South Correctional Entity, known as SCORE, in Des Moines on January 3, 2018, after she had been incarcerated for 106 hours - despite not being charged with any crime.
The shocking footage, obtained by DailyMail.com, has been described by the family's attorney as a 'window into hell' and captures four days of alleged neglect by authorities.
It shows the mother in distress, as she is seen stripping naked, crawling along the cell floor, banging on the door and appearing to vomit and hallucinate.
Attorney Nate Bingham told DailyMail.com that starvation, after she didn't eat for the four days she was kept in the jail, ultimately caused her death.
Jail staff had written in her medical notes on the day she died that she was at risk of starvation ketoacidosis but still failed to seek medical help, it is alleged.
Two other inmates have died at the facility in the two years since Rodriguez died.
Rodriguez's family have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the correctional facility, saying she was wrongly arrested when she was suffering a 'mental health episode' and needed medical help.
The incident began when Rodriquez's husband, Rey, called 911 on December 30 2017 asking for medical help when his wife was suffering 'a psychiatric problem'.
In the distressing 911 call shown on CBS News, Rey tells the dispatcher in Spanish: 'She's having a psychiatric problem and isn't behaving normally. She's being violent and has already hit me twice and I need a medic.'
Instead of medical assistance, police arrived and arrested her for fourth degree assault and booked her into SCORE, the lawsuit states.
Rodriguez was found dead in her cell four days later.
The family's attorney Nate Bingham told DailyMail.com that 'the videos speak for themselves', chronicling the mother's four-day decline.
'It's a terrible case and obvious that she was in medical and mental distress and needed help,' he said in a phone interview Wednesday.
'She was living this for four days and never saw a doctor.'
Footage first shows Rodriguez getting out of the back of a police car outside the facility.
She is seen walking on her own and then she appears to stumble and officers then pick her up and carry her.
Surveillance inside the booking office then shows her being carried by three officers through the reception area.
She is then set down on the floor in the middle of the jail cell, a camera inside the cell shows.
Rodriguez, who seems to be handcuffed, appears limp and does not resist the officers. When they leave her face down on the floor, she continues to lie there barely moving for several minutes, the footage shows.
Around 20 minutes later, she is then seen being moved into another cell, where she begins walking in circles.
Footage the following day shows her naked, crawling and apparently vomiting.
One shocking clip dated December 31 shows her naked crouched on the floor and crawling slowly around the cell, before she crawls backwards into the bench and pushes herself underneath it.
Rodriguez lies in a fetal position face down on the floor under the bench and occasionally flails her arms in front of her.
On January 3, in the hours before she died, surveillance shows that Rodriguez's demeanor appears to have deteriorated further.
Footage shows her drinking water from the tap, gagging and shivering uncontrollably and knocking on the cell door.
Bingham said the facility's staff were unable to communicate with Rodriguez during her incarceration because she was so mentally ill.
He also alleges that Rodriguez's exact time of death is unknown because it was a while before officials noticed her unresponsive.
Jose Marte, Rodriguez's oldest son, told CBS that she had a known history of mental health disorders having been diagnosed and treated for bipolar disorder in the past.
He also said she had 'never been arrested' before.
Bingham told DailyMail.com the family was confused by the response given by authorities to their requests to help her.
'They did not understand what was going on or why she was being arrested or why he was not getting medical help as that was what they asked for and what she needed,' the attorney said.
The lawsuit claims that Rodriquez died from ketoacidosis, a buildup of acids in the blood which can happen when blood sugar levels are too high for too long.
The suit states it is 'an easily diagnosable and treatable metabolic condition'.
According to Bingham, Rodriguez developed the condition due to starvation, after she didn't eat for the four-day duration of her being held.
'She did not eat for four days when in the jail and that seems to be the obvious cause,' he told DailyMail.com.
'There is such a thing as starvation ketoacidosis and that seems to be what happened here.'
The condition can make the sufferer 'delusional' and experience 'psychoses' and that it causes them to suffer 'intense thirst' which leads them to 'chug water' which then kills them from 'water intoxication'.
The family's attorney said jail staff were aware that she was at risk of developing the condition.
Medical notes made just hours before she died stated she was at risk of water intoxication but rather than seeking medical help, staff just moved her to a cell that had no water supply.
'The day she died they came to this realization and made medical notes on this and just moved her to a dry cell where there was no water,' he told DailyMail.com.
'And there she lay down and went to sleep and never woke up.'
As well as her treatment in the facility, questions are also being asked around why she was able to be incarcerated in the four days leading up to her death.
Under federal law, inmates must be charged with a crime or released within 72 hours of their arrest.
Rodriguez spent a total of 106 hours behind bars and was never charged of a crime or taken before a judge.
Marte said his family wants justice for his mother's death and wants to make sure 'people can know about these type of situations that are happening in these jail systems'.
'I feel like all of this could have been prevented,' he said.
SCORE said in a statement to CBS News that it extended its 'condolences to all involved…' and that 'since this incident, our employees have received comprehensive training in crisis intervention.'
It also said 'no malicious criminal act contributed to her death.'
On SCORE's website, it says the 'inmate death' happened at approximately 11:45 p.m. January 3 2018 when 'Corrections Officers at South Correctional Entity discovered an unresponsive female in a medical observation unit.
'Corrections and Medical staff immediately began resuscitation efforts until the King County Medics arrived. The inmate was unable to be revived and pronounced dead.'
According to the website, two other inmates have died in the institution since Rodriguez, with both cause of deaths described as 'unknown'.
A 52-year-old male died in April 9 2019, four days after he was booked into the jail on April 5.
This was followed by the death of a female inmate in September.
Bingham believes this sends alarm bells around the treatment endured by inmates in the facility and said the two deaths were being investigated.
He slammed NaphCare which provides correctional healthcare at SCORE, saying it showed 'obvious systemic neglect'.
Bingham said that NaphCare 'leave a trail of bodies wherever they go'.
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