Family suing Linn County over death of daughter in county jail

CEDAR RAPIDS — The family of a Cedar Rapids woman who died in the Linn County Jail two years ago has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Linn County, the Linn County sheriff and jail staffers.

The suit — filed this week in Linn County District Court by Cristy Caldwell on behalf of her daughter, Malorie Hults — alleges that Hults, 31, did not receive a proper medical screening when she was checked into the jail on March 23, 2022, after she being arrested on charges of domestic abuse assault.

Hults died early the next morning after spending the night in a cell. According to an investigative report, she died from complications of chronic substance use.

Caldwell called 911 on March 23 after she came home from work to find Hults fighting with Caldwell’s husband. Hults also attacked Caldwell and knocked her glasses from her face, according to the suit.

Hults had been taking several medications related to mental health, and some for celiac disease and for Guillain-Barre syndrome, an autoimmune disease that had been recently diagnosed.

Caldwell thought Hults’ aggressive behavior was tied to her medications and called 911, hoping that her daughter would be taken to a hospital for treatment.

At the jail

Cedar Rapids police officers instead took Hults to the Linn County Jail on domestic abuse charges. She was booked into the jail by two corrections officers — Drew Wirtner and Jeimmy Navarro, who are both listed as defendants in the lawsuit. Also named in the lawsuit are Tia Finley, a nurse at the jail, and Sheriff Brian Gardner.

Hults told the officers about her celiac disease and Guillan-Barre syndrome but didn’t fill out her intake paperwork, the suit states.

Sometime between 6:20 p.m., when Hults was booked, and 9:27 p.m., when medications were dropped off for Hults, she was seen by Finley, a nurse, who observed that Hults was agitated and not consolable. The encounter with the nurse was not documented, according to the lawsuit.

Video footage showed Hults vomiting into a toilet after receiving her medications, the suit states.

At about 12:41 a.m., video footage shows Hults appearing to have a seizure. She was found unresponsive at 2:12 a.m. and taken to Mercy Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 3:16 a.m.

The autopsy by the Iowa State Medical Examiner found withdrawal from alcohol and benzodiazepine, a type of controlled substance, was the likely cause of Hults’ death.

One of Hults’ prescriptions was for clonazepam, a member of the benzodiazepine family of drugs. The autopsy referenced low post-mortem levels of clonazepam, the suit states.

The suit asserts jail staff should have conducted a more thorough health screening when Hults arrived at the jail, and that, if they had, they would have recognized the symptoms of withdrawal and summoned medical treatment for Hults.

Medical opinion

Hults’ family sought a professional opinion report, included in the lawsuit, from Dr. Ryan D. Herrington, a Wisconsin doctor who has worked in correctional settings.

Herrington stated the jail had not followed best practices as outlined by the National Commission on Correctional Healthcare.

“Alcohol and benzodiazepine withdrawal syndromes have treatment options that are known to be effective,” he wrote. “Mortality from alcohol and/or benzodiazepine withdrawal accordingly is a preventable outcome.

“Ms. Hults, however, was never placed in a position of advantage at (the jail) to recover from, by way of treatment, and survive her alcohol and benzodiazepine withdrawal because, contrary to standard of care, no one knew she was in withdrawal. And no one knew Ms. Hults was in withdrawal because no one looked to see if she was in withdrawal, which is why her death is so shameful.”

Deaths in jail

Hults was one of seven people who died while in custody at the Linn County Jail between 2020 and 2022. Two of the deaths were suicides, one was from an overdose, and four, including Hults’, were ruled medical deaths by the sheriff’s office.

“The two-year anniversary of Malorie’s death has inflicted immeasurable pain on our family, compounded by the knowledge that her death was entirely preventable,” Caldwell said in a news release about the lawsuit. “Our pursuit of justice is not merely for Malorie but for the entire community.”

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