Articles

Wrongful Death Suit Is Settled Over Medical Care at L.A. Jail

By Ryan Oliver, Daily Journal Staff Writer, March 30, 2007

Los Angeles -- Attorney Robert Berke says he hopes a $475,000 settlement against Los Angeeles County he won on behalf of a beatnik poet's widow will help force the county to improve the medical care it gives to inmates.

John Thomas Idlet, 71, died in custody in 2002 while serving a four-month jail sentence for a sex offense after caretakers allegdly failed to have him promptly examined despite an obviously detriorating medical condition, according to the complaint.

"The death of a medically compromised person 18 days after taking him into custody, to me, raised concerns," said Berke, a sole practitioner in Santa Monica.

The county Board of Supervisors unanimously voted on March 20 to settle the lawsuit.  The settlement is the third the county has made in the last four months related to its medical care of inmates who died in custody.  Long v. County of Los Angeles, CV0300531.

Deputy COunty Counsel Narbeh Bagdasarian, who handled the case, could not be reached for comment.  Principal Deputy County Counsel Roger Granbo did not return calls for comment.

Idlet was suffering from congestive heart failure and other ailments when he was booked, and he complained to jailers that his condition was worsening, according to the complaint.  Nurses noted he was suffering from shortness of breath, swollen legs, a rapid heartbeat and brown urination, according to the lawsuit.

Shortly before his death, idlet was found lying in his own fecal matter, having fallen from his bed.  A doctor examined Idlet three hours later and ordered him transferred to a hospital because of low blood pressure.  He died later that day.

Berke said the challenge in bringing the lawsuit was the claim by the county that it could not be held liable for the treatement decisions by its professional medical staff so long as they did not act with deliberate indifference.

U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer dismissed the suit in 2004 for that reason, ruling there was no constitutional violation.  The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the decision in 2006 in a written opinion by U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken, sitting by designation.

Wilken wrote that the county did not have adequate training and policies in place stating under what conditions an inmate should be hospitalized.

Idlet had been convicted of unlawful sexual contact with his daughter stemming from an incident in the 1970s when she was allegedly 15.  The woman came forward years later after California legislatures rolled back the statue of limitations for certain sex crimes.

Idlet later pleaded no contest to the charge.  An appeals court overturned his conviction after his death because a U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state could not rescind the statue of limitations after the fact.

Idlet's criminal attorney, Jeffrey Douglas, said he had evidence Idlet's daughter was of age at the time of the incident, but Idlet believed he had a moral duty to make a plea.

Douglas said he unsuccessfully tried to persuade Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor no to send Idlet to jail because of his medical condition.

Most of Idlet's work is unpublished, though he gained the respect of many in the Venice Beach literary scene and better-known beatnik poet.