$220,000 Settlement After Woman Dies in Ohio Jail From Drug Withdrawal
by Anthony W. Accurso
With signing of a settlement agreement on September 11, 2024, Ohio’s Richland County was on the hook for $220,000 to the estate of detainee Maggie Copeland, who died while experiencing withdrawal symptoms at the County lockup on Mother’s Day in May 2022. Under a separate agreement inked on October 11, 2024, contracted private jail medical provider Advance Correctional Healthcare (ACH) also settled claims against the firm for an undisclosed sum.
Copeland was booked into the jail on May 5, 2022, after self-surrendering to serve a 15-day sentence for failing to appear at a probation meeting. She had been under supervision pursuant to a misdemeanor conviction for possession of drug abuse instruments. During intake, she advised jailers of her active heroin addiction, noting that she used about two grams per day. However, jail and ACH staff failed to complete proper forms, instead noting in jail records “Medical intake refused,” and, “Medical history unknown.” The latter was likely false, since Copeland’s medical history was on file “from prior incarcerations,” according to the complaint later filed by her father, Jon Copeland. Yet “personnel of the jail failed to retrieve her records.”
Despite Copeland’s obvious symptoms of heroin withdrawal, several nurses and the staff doctor—all employed by ACH—ignored her condition for days. It wasn’t until May 8, 2022, that she was allowed to begin the withdrawal protocol, consisting of “Vistaril, 25mg, twice a day; Bentyl, 20mg, twice a day; [and] Clonidine, 0.2mg, twice a day,” the complaint recalled. That same day, she was moved to a medical cell, and ACH staff conducted a urinalysis, which tested positive for “cocaine, morphine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, and methadone.” Copeland was also concurrently diagnosed with a lice infection.
By the next day, May 9, 2022, her behavior began to deteriorate visibly. A day after that, she was “more combative and incoherent,” the complaint continued. Nevertheless, at 11:55 p.m., a nurse entered her cell and “maliciously cut all of Maggie’s hair off”—hair that was “very long (below her waist) and was her pride.”
Copeland was found unresponsive in her cell the next morning at 7:07 a.m. when a guard noticed that she hadn’t eaten any of her breakfast. Surveillance footage showed that the nurse who cut off her hair was the last to enter the cell before her death, and that 4:36 a.m. visit lasted a total of just 10 seconds. Yet the nurse filed false reports stating that she checked on the detainee every hour starting at midnight.
After ACH staff attempted CPR, Copeland was transported to OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 7:42 a.m. An autopsy report revealed that she “died from dehydration and renal failure.” Her estate’s complaint alleged that she had “vomited for four and a half days, experienced a seizure, could not eat, and displayed other obvious signs of medical distress before she died.”
Ominously, the autopsy also noted that the detainee had suffered several “contusions of the left upper extremity and lower extremities” as well as “abrasions of the knees, left leg, right hand, and right wrist.” The estate’s lawsuit blamed jail staff and alleged that, “[i]n order to cover up their misconduct, the Defendants jointly agreed and/or conspired with one another to prepare and file false, misleading, inaccurate, and incomplete official reports and give false, incomplete, and misleading versions of the events to their superiors and the public.”
As the lawsuit also noted, “numerous” other jail detainees “had experienced drug and/or alcohol withdrawal” but “were not adequately treated for their withdrawal symptoms,” resulting in “unnecessarily severe symptoms that could have been abated with proper treatment.” The suit was filed in federal court for the Northern District of Ohio on August 4, 2023, and it was settled just over a year later. The estate was represented by attorneys with J.C. Ratliff Law Offices in Marion. See: Est. of Copeland v. Richland Cty., USDC (N.D. Ohio), Case No. 1:23-cv-01517.
Protestors gathered outside the jail on June 3, 2024, upset by the numerous deaths inside. Many held signs, such as one calling on the County to “Fire [Jail Administrator] Capt. [Chris] Blunk.” Another sign with Copeland’s photo bluntly stated, “My name is Maggie. I was tortured, shaved bald and stripped naked on Mother’s Day to die in your jail.”
Additional source: Mansfield News Journal
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Related legal case
Est. of Copeland v. Richland Cty.
| Year | 2024 |
|---|---|
| Cite | USDC (N.D. Ohio), Case No. 1:23-cv-01517 |
| Level | District Court |
| Conclusion | Settlement |
| Damages | 220000.00 |