Orange County in Southern California has agreed to pay $480,000 to an inmate who was pregnant but miscarried after sheriff’s deputies made a stop at a Starbucks on the way to the hospital.
After her water broke in the jail, Sandra Quinones, who is no longer in custody, claimed in a federal lawsuit that sheriff’s staff mishandled the situation and delayed treatment.
The payment was unanimously approved by county supervisors on Tuesday, but Quinones must formally accept the settlement before it is final, according to the Orange County Register.
She was mistreated in jail, so “that’s a very good result,” her attorney Dick Herman told the Register.
“This poor woman is in jail having a miscarriage and the police take her to the hospital in a patrol car while she’s bleeding, instead of calling an ambulance.”
Quinones, according to Herman, is mentally ill and homeless.
According to Herman, the Orange County jail “is capable of sinking to the lowest depths.” Sadly, this is not the only instance.
The lawsuit claimed that after Quinones pushed a call button in her cell when her water broke on March 28, 2016, no jail staff responded for two hours.
Quinones was then transported to a hospital in a patrol car rather than an ambulance, but only after deputies made a coffee pit stop, according to the lawsuit.
According to court documents, Quinones was hospitalised, but the foetus did not make it.
Officials from the sheriff’s office declined to comment on the agreement.
According to the Register, the lawsuit charged deputies with showing “deliberate indifference” to Quinones’ civil rights and her medical condition.
A federal court initially dismissed the lawsuit in 2020, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated it in 2021, according to the Times.
Herman told the newspaper, “She persistently pursued this case, through all of its ups and downs.” “It was an arduous, protracted battle. We appreciate that this was resolved successfully.”