The estate of Monique Miller is suing the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Department, unnamed deputies, and a corrections officer for her Framingham, MA wrongful death. Miller, a 42-year-old woman with five children, died of a drug overdose while at the MCI-Framingham correctional facility. She was imprisoned over drug and shoplifting charges.
According to her family, Miller snorted heroin while in custody. She was then allowed to remain facedown on the floor of her cell for hours even though she obviously needed medical help. The plaintiffs are accusing corrections officer Nancy Padvaiskas and the other defendants of “deliberate indifference” and violating the prohibition related to unusual and cruel punishment. Their Massachusetts wrongful death case also accuses the sheriff’s deputies of not supervising the prisoners under their care, failing to stop drug use by inmates, and not noticing that there were inmates under the influence of drugs.
During transport for a court appearance last year, Miller and other prisoners snorted heroin while in Cambridge. The drug came from another prisoner, who was also concealing the sedative Seroquel.
Surveillance footage captured Miller taking heroin. Other inmates have since admitted to snorting the drug too while in custody. A prisoner even had to go to the infirmary for drug use.
It was Padvaiskas’s job to make the rounds that night. She reportedly saw Miller facedown on the floor yet did not enter the cell. It would be more than four hours before she finally asked Miller’s cellmate to wake the prisoner, who was found unresponsive. According to autopsy results, Miller passed away from acute intoxication from taking opiates, nortriptyline, and amitriptyline.
Massachusetts Police Brutality and Negligence
Law enforcement officers, including those tasked with supervising inmates, have a duty to protect prisoners from injury. When failure to adequately monitor prisoners causes injury or illness to occur, or creates an atmosphere were injury or death can happen, the inmate or his/her family may have reason to pursue a Boston injury case. Also, police, deputies, corrections officers are not allowed to exert excessive or unnecessary force when dealing with prisoners or civilians. That kind of misconduct could lead to a Massachusetts police brutality case.
Federal suit filed after inmate death at MCI-Framingham, Metrowest Daily News, September 23, 2014
Family of MCI-Framingham inmate files lawsuit, Boston Herald, September 24, 2014
MCI – Framingham, Mass.gov
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Ex-Inmate’s Family Files Essex County, Massachusetts $2M Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Jail, Boston Injury Lawyer Blog, February 25, 2013
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