Denver – A 69 -year -old man slowly suffered in a Rural Colorado prison after his ribs broke during an altercation with a deputy and languished in a cell for a week without medical care, according to a lawsuit announced by the man’s family on Thursday.
The 2023 death of Michael Burch was governed a homicide. After a state investigation, prosecutors decided not to present criminal charges against the deputy who used a Taser in Burch and fought with him in a cell in the Huerfano County prison. District prosecutor Henry Solano said there was “enough information” that the deputy could say that he acted in self -defense.
A autopsy report found that six of Burch’s right ribs had broken and his right lung collapsed after the altercation with the deputy. He was not taken to a hospital, but was transferred to another cell where he was found dead seven days later.
“The simple act of breathing became so painful since the shattered ribs of Mr. Burch continued to pierce and cross their organs that his body stopped using his right lung, which was reduced by half the normal size,” Burch lawyers said in the federal demand.
He appointed as accused, the commissioners of the Huerfano County, the Sheriff’s Office, the individual officials of the Sheriff, the paramedics and the hospital for which they worked, as well as the nurses and the non -profit company hired to provide medical care to the inmates.
The demand accuses them of causing the fatal injuries of Burch and doing nothing to treat them, violating their constitutional rights.
A lawyer who represents the County Office and the Sheriff, Eric Ziporin, declined to comment. A spokesman for the Spanish Peaks Regional Health Center, Stacy Cristelli, said the hospital could not comment due to the patient’s privacy, but would defend himself in court.
Burch family lawyers from the Mohamedbhai firm said they were not aware that no one was disciplined or fired in relation to Burch’s death.
Burch was approached after he refused to drop a pencil they had given him to take notes in the cell. A deputy had warned him “to leave him or drop it,” according to the images of the body of the body. Once the taser was used, Burch began to load in the deputy and the video, which darkens, shows it to the ground near a steel bank in the cell and his arms held by the deputy. The demand says that Burch was approached in the bank, which says that the ribs were broken.
Burch, a former California prison guard, was arrested on March 25, 2023, after a series of erratic acts, including driving to the house of two strangers and balancing a rubber deck, which the claim statements were caused by their deterioration of mental health.
Burch’s mental health was not evaluated when he reached jail, he affirms the demand, although Video captured the officer of another Sheriff who indicated that he was crazy when he stirred his finger next to his head after being beaten with the Taser and approached on March 28, 2023.
The inmate shouted and groaned when the deputy used a knee to keep Botto on the ground when he was accused of resisting. Later it seemed quieter when it was evaluated by paramedics. He told them that his ribs had been crushed and said he wanted to go to the hospital, but the paramedics did not evaluate their chest, according to the demand.
The images of the body of the body show a paramedic who says he was going to see his right side, but it was not clear because of the footage he did.
Burch was not taken to the hospital, he said the demand, but moved to a neighboring cell, where the blurred window of the door was temporarily covered by plastic that said “Warning and Safety Security Zone”, which was also captured in video.
After Burch told the captain of a sheriff that he barely survived the night on April 1, 2023, a hired nurse saw him on video in Mississippi, but did not ask to see the burch chest, according to the demand, focusing his attention on his mental health.
Three days later, Burch was found dead on the concrete floor of his cell.
