A federal jury began deliberating late Thursday afternoon after hearing three days of testimony in a lawsuit alleging that Saline County and its jailers should be held responsible for the 2011 death of a pretrial detainee.
Thirty-year-old Casey Babovec died about four hours after being arrested on an outstanding warrant after an April 13, 2011, traffic stop during which he swallowed two packs of methamphetamine that later broke open in his stomach.
An autopsy found that he died of methamphetamine intoxication, with struggle, restraint and exertion as contributing factors.
His mother, Robin Babovec Cruz, contends that jailers who pulled him away from a fight with another inmate in a holding cell and pinned him to the floor while trying to handcuff him weren't trained to recognize signs of an overdose and ignored his cries that he couldn't breathe. She also contends that the county should have heeded numerous warnings from then-Sheriff Bruce Pennington and provided funds to make emergency medical care available on-site.
Grainy video from a jail camera positioned above and several feet away from the melee was played repeatedly during the trial. It showed a number of jailers -- eventually five or six -- piling on top of or near Babovec as he lay facedown on the ground of the jail's book-in area, one arm at least temporarily trapped underneath him. He lost control of his bladder and bowels, and at one point could be seen kicking his legs and then lying still. He remained still as the jailers handcuffed him behind his back and eventually stood up.
A couple of them then dragged him into another cell and flopped him facedown onto a concrete floor. One of them tried to turn him on his side, saying he was making strange noises and had thrown up, but he appeared to involuntarily roll back onto his stomach. Then a female jailer told the others that it appeared he wasn't breathing.
At that point, jailers called 911, ran to get a defibrillator and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation. It wasn't clear whether he was already dead upon the paramedics' arrival or died shortly thereafter.
An expert witness for the plaintiffs testified that jailers should have never admitted Babovec to the jail since he was obviously suffering from a drug overdose. The expert, Dr. Michael Lyman, also testified that the snoring sound that several jailers heard Babovec make as they struggled with him on the ground was a sign that he was unconscious and dying, and that they could have saved his life if they had recognized that and sought emergency medical care.
Attorney James Swindoll of Little Rock, who is representing Cruz, told the jury of six men and six women in his closing arguments that any reasonable person would have recognized that Babovec needed medical care and provided it immediately.
Although the jail now has medical staff on the premises and jailers have been provided with some training about intoxication, Swindoll noted that the county has faced about 30 lawsuits in recent years over inmate care in the jail. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette found in August 2013 that nearly three-dozen lawsuits had been filed in the previous five years.
"Saline County has a problem," Swindoll told jurors. "It violates the rights of people in its custody. ... Now is the time to stop it. Who will do it, if not you?"
He asked jurors to deliver a verdict making it clear that medical care must be readily available and that excessive force won't be tolerated. He didn't name an amount but asked jurors to award compensatory damages for loss of life, mental anguish, and pain and suffering. A claim for punitive damages wasn't mentioned.
Attorney George Ellis of Benton, who represents the county, Pennington and nine jailers named as defendants, said that Babovec didn't show any obvious signs of needing medical care when he was first booked into the jail and placed in a holding cell with about 10 other prisoners. He said that as the afternoon wore on, Babovec became "aggressive" and "dangerous," and that the jailers -- some of whom were certified law officers -- had a duty to subdue him to protect themselves, other inmates and Babovec himself.
Ellis reminded jurors of the jailers' testimony that they weren't lying directly on top of Babovec but were straddling him or sitting partially on him, without putting their weight on him, as they tried to do a "four-point restraint," in which each of four jailers holds down his arms and legs.
Ellis also noted how one jailer, Calvin Reed, who was accused of sitting on Babovec's back for several minutes but testified that he only straddled him, later provided mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, even after Babovec had thrown up, in a frantic effort to save his life.
"It was his methamphetamine in those two packets that ruptured, " Ellis said, referring to Babovec. "He's the one who struggled and fought in an effort not to be cuffed. ... Sooner or later, we have to deal with personal responsibility. ... No one put those packets in Casey Babovec's stomach besides Casey Babovec."
Ellis also noted that Pennington begged the Quorum Court for years to provide medical staff at the jail, and it was largely due to his efforts that the jail now has has medical staff.
"She got that," he said of Cruz, who told jurors that's something she wanted to come about as a result of her lawsuit. "She thanked him by suing him."
In addition to the county, Pennington and Reed, the defendants are Sgt. Mike Richards, Tonya Parker, Sam Griffin, Dion McGuire, Ryan McKinley, David Fenton, James Payne and Nancy Shellnut.
Payne testified Wednesday that he had worked as a jailer for two months at the time of the death, and had "no training whatsoever." He said he wasn't aware then of Lyman's contention that it is possible to cause someone suffering from a drug overdose to stop breathing by sitting or lying on top of him.
Lyman testified that national policies caution jailers against prone restraint because of possible suffocation.
U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker let jurors deliberate for an hour Thursday before sending them home with instructions to resume deliberations at 9 a.m. today.
Metro on 01/30/2015