Articles

Beat Poet's Widow Can Sue L.A. Jail for Wrongful Death

By Amelia Hansen, Los Angeles Daily Journal, March 31, 2006

Call it poetic justice.

A famous 350-pound Venice Beach beat poet who was jailed for having sexual contact with a teenager, fell ill and finally expired when the medical staff was unable to lift him out of his own excrement now has scored a legal victory in death.

A federal appeals court has ruled that the widow of John Thomas can move ahead with a federal wrongful death suit after Thomas died of cardiac arrest while serving a four-month sentence at the Los Angeles County Jail in 2002.

A three-judge panel of the 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that widow Philomene Long, also a well-known poet and author of the "Queen of Bohemia," should have her day in court.

The ruling reversed a trial judge who concluded that Long failed to prove the county had a policy of "deliberate indifference" to prisoners' medical needs.

The appellate panel faulted U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer of Los Angeles for not giving Long an adequate chance to make her case.

"This court consistently has found that a county's lack of affirmative polices or procedures to guide employees can amount to deliberate indifference, even when the county has other federal policies in place," U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken of Oakland write for the appellate panel while sitting by designation.

Circuit Judges Stephen Reinhardt and Johnnie B. Rawlinson joined the opinion.

John Thomas Idlet, a "sage of Venice" and an old friend of fellow beat poet Charles Bukowski, pleaded no contest to a charge of having sexual contact in 1971 with a 15-year-old, according to a press account. He was sentenced to 120 days in jail.

Before the 71-year-old Thomas began serving his sentence on March 11, 2002, his lawyer wrote a letter to the director of the county jail medical services, stating that without proper medical treatment and exercise Thomas' death would be "imminent."

Just 18 days later Thomas was dead.

According to the court record, Thomas' health rapidly deteriorated after he was transferred to county jail's Medical Services Bureau.

While waiting to be assigned to a bed he waited 38 hours in a wheelchair and did not receive his required medications. Nurses failed to call a doctor, despite his increasingly swollen feet and shortness of breath. Ultimately, he fell and defecated on himself. The medical staff was unable to move Thomas, who weighed more than 350 pounds at the time.

Philomeme Long, who later wrote a poem about her husband's suffering in the medical facility, filed a complaint asserting the county had failed to adequately train jail medical staff and implement medical policies.

Fischer, the trial judge, granted the county's motion for summary judgment. He said Long failed to demonstrate that the county had a policy of deliberate indifference to the prisoners' medical needs.

The 9^th Circuit panel said he threw out the case too quickly. The panel said the question of whether the county is responsible for Thomas' death must be decided by a jury.

Robert Berke, Long's Santa Monica attorney, said Thursday that he is gratified his client will have her day in court.

"This case has raised some very serious issues about the county's procedures for people with serious illnesses," Berke said. "Philomene certainly didn't expect her husband would be dead 18 days after county received him."

Berke pointed out that the 9^th Circuit's opinion came out almost exactly on the anniversary of Thomas' death.

Los Angeles attorneys for the county - including Mildred O'Linn of Manning and Marder and Martin Stein of Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland - did not immediately return calls for comment.