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Lawsuit
alleges jailers
stole
inmate’s medicine
By Fred Mramor
Robert
“Stormy” Brahm has brought a civil action against Sierra County
charging that jailers stole his prescription medication while he was
incarcerated at the county’s detention center last year.
Brahm,
a local electrical contractor, said he was prescribed Valium, Percocet,
and Flexoril (a muscle relaxant) after his left arm was nearly pulled off
in a work-related accident several years ago.
Brahm
said that within a week of his incarceration for drunk driving (DWI)
beginning last August, detention officers, who hold and dispense
medications to inmates, informed him that he had run out of Flexoril.
Brahm’s prescription was refilled on Oct. 10.
State
Police Officer Freddy De La O, after being called by Truth or Consequences
Police to investigate “drug activity” at the jail as reported by
Brahm’s wife, Connie, stated in his Oct. 22 incident report that there
should have been 64 Flexoril pills remaining in Brahm’s prescription
bottle if Brahm had been taking his pills three times a day as prescribed.
De
La O stated that he counted only 24 pills and that 40 pills were missing
and unaccounted for. De La O stated also that if the Flexoril had been
taken in accordance with the dates, times and Brahm’s initials on his
pill schedule, there would be 75 pills left.
De
La O further stated, “It was found that there is no consistency in the
initials in the spaces that Mr. Brahm is supposed to sign off on. This
would prove that Mr. Brahm is not the only person signing his initials on
the pill schedule.”
Brahm
said he doesn’t take the medications everyday but only when he needs
them. He said detention officers had marked on his schedule that he
received his Flexoril on days when he did not take them.
According
to De La O’s supplemental report of Nov. 8, Detention Officer Nicholas
White stated, “There are officers who are lazy and there are times when
inmates are asleep and detention officers don’t want to bother them.”
White
added that inmates sometimes refuse to sign their pill schedules and
jailers sign for them. White, however, said he had not signed Brahms’s
pill schedule for him and that he had not known Brahm to refuse to sign
when receiving his pills.
White
said several pills were found in Brahm’s cell, against jail policy, in a
shakedown prior to Brahm’s report of missing pills. White did not say
what kind of pills were found in Brahm’s cell.
White
further stated that prior to the report of missing pills, all jailers had
a key to the box inmates’ medications are kept in but that access to the
key was limited to only a few officers following the incident.
Jail
Administrator Roy Bagwell said Wednesday that when he assumed the position
in early October he limited access to the prescription medications box key
to only two detention officers. Bagwell said the new policy had nothing to
do with Brahm’s charges but that he felt too many keys were in
circulation.
Bagwell
said also he has instituted a policy whereby prescription pills will be
counted upon their being brought to the jail and a receipt given to the
person delivering the medications. Further, Bagwell has ordered that
prescription medications will be delivered to the jail in sealed
containers to prevent substitutions or other tampering.
Bagwell
said that in addition to the State Police investigation, he conducted two
in-house investigations of Brahm’s charges of stolen pills. He said he
could not conclusively determine if any jailers had stolen pills or if
jail personnel actually received the number of pills Brahm’s wife
supposedly delivered to the detention facility.
De
La O stated that Detention Officer Marvin Whitfield told him that despite
written jail policy, he knew of no records showing the names of jailers
when they dispense medications to inmates.
In
addition to claiming that jailers had stolen 40 or more of his Flexoril
pills, Brahm said he was told by jail trustees that detention officers had
given some of his Valium to a female inmate, whom Brahm described as a
mental case, in order to pacify her.
Brahm
said he was subjected to harassment after complaining of the missing
medications. He said he was moved around within the facility and was stuck
in a cell with fellow inmate David Parker Ray for two months. Brahm said
he had to sleep on the floor with his head either under Ray’s bunk or
under the cell’s commode.
Brahm
said he was coerced into signing a document giving up his mattress so that
another inmate could use it.
Brahm
said he was finally moved to another facility in December to serve the
remainder of his sentence after a trustee threatened his life at the
behest of jail staff.
Brahm’s
attorney, Albert Costales, in a March 6 letter to the county’s defense
attorney, Jonlyn Martinez, said he is authorized to settle the case for
$50,000.
But
Brahm this week said he is not willing to settle and that his case is not
about money.
“The
way they’re treating inmates is dangerous and illegal, that’s what
it’s about,” Brahm said.
Brahm
said that rather than money, he wants the current jail administration to
be terminated and that he wants the jail to be staffed with conscientious
professionals and a trained medical officer on duty at all times. He said
also he wants the detention center to be safe and sanitary.
Sierra
County Manager Adam Polley this week declined to say if the county is
willing to settle with Brahm and would not otherwise comment about the
ongoing case.
A
pre-trial hearing in the case of Brahm v. Sierra County in district court
scheduled for Tuesday, June 5, was postponed. A trial date has not yet
been scheduled.
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