OGDEN, Utah (AP) - A federal judge has scheduled a trial over whether a Utah county is liable for civil damages after an inmate bled to death in a jail cell in 2016.
U.S. District Judge Jill Parrish in Salt Lake City set a trial start date of Jan. 24, 2022 for a civil rights suit filed by the mother of Heather Miller, who died at a Davis County Jail, the Standard-Examiner reported Sunday.
Miller, then 28, bled to death after falling from a jail bunk and splitting her spleen. The federal civil rights lawsuit said jail nurse Marvin Anderson failed to check Miller’s vital signs after the accident. Miller was only given Tylenol and moved to another cell, the lawsuit said. The 28-year-old died a few hours later. An autopsy revealed that she had lost about 1.3 liters of blood.
Miller had been in jail after being arrested the day before on a drug possession charge.
The judge ruled in a hearing on Tuesday that a reasonable jury could conclude if Anderson and the county were deliberately indifferent to Miller’s need for medical care.
Miller’s death also highlighted the county jail’s outdated medical unit, which was full on the night Miller died, the newspaper reported. Miller was not medically monitored in the cell where she was left.
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