Another inmate at the Richland County Jail has died after arriving at OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital.
Rebecca Westfield, 54, was pronounced dead at 5:25 a.m. May 7 at OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital after being transported by Mansfield Fire Department emergency squad from the jail, according to Tom Stortz, a Richland County coroner's investigator. Her body was taken to Montgomery County Medical Examiner's Office for an autopsy.
Westfield was booked into the jail May 2 on a bond revocation, her son Brett Westfield said.
Law enforcement notified him at his residence that his mother had died.
"I didn't know she was even in jail," he said.
Brett Westfield said his mother had been living on the streets.
Westfield said he was told by law enforcement his mother remained in a jail cell for five days at the book-in area because she had refused to be booked in.
"The jail is supposed to be a safe place," he said.
"Any time a person dies in jail custody it raises serious concerns," Brett Westfield's Columbus-based attorney Bart Keyes said. "We are working with Rebecca's family to investigate her death and find the truth about what happened."
Brett Westfield said his mother was an alcoholic and a drug addict. He said she had been at his residence 12 days before going to jail and was having trouble walking.
He said he has still not seen his mother's body but a funeral home sent him a photograph of his mother's face so he could identify her. He said the photo showed bruises on her face.
According to a Mansfield police report, an officer was dispatched to OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital May 2 after Rebecca Westfield had reported being raped.
Richland County Sheriff J. Steve Sheldon initially could not be reached for comment regarding Westfield's death Monday but upon being contacted by the News Journal Monday his office later issued a news release: "On Tuesday May 7, 2024, at approximately 5 a.m., corrections staff and medical staff responded to a medical emergency in a booking cell involving 54-year-old female inmate Rebecca Westfield. Life-saving measures were performed by the staff but unfortunately Westfield died shortly after the transport to OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital. Westfield was in jail since May 2, 2024, on a bench warrant for a bond revocation out of Richland County Common Pleas Court. An investigation is ongoing."
Federal lawsuit second in 2024 against Richland County Jail medical staff
This is the second federal lawsuit filed in 2024 against Advanced Correctional Healthcare Inc. at Richland County Jail.
Shortly before 1 p.m. on Dec. 18, 2021, Richland County Jail Corrections Officer Thomas Gordon called for an emergency response for Zachary Marshall because he was unresponsive in his cell. He was transported to a hospital where it was reported to the medical staff he had been acting abnormally for a week.
He died Dec. 22, 2021, in the intensive care unit.
Marshall was diagnosed at the hospital with sepsis. "Because defendants' actions and inactions had allowed his condition to become so severe, doctors were unable to save Zach," the lawsuit said.
Lawsuit alleges jail medical staff failed to act
The timeline and details of Marshall's death are outlined in the nine-page federal lawsuit filed by Columbus attorneys for Marshall's estate through its administrator, Lacee Bowersox, who is Zachary Marshall's sister, against Advanced Correctional Healthcare Inc.; Kelly Weaver LPN; Madison Conrad Hogie, LPN; Christina Williams, LPN; Christopher Smith, LPN; Patricia Weaver, LPN; Chuka Onyeneke N.D.; Katelyn Huff, LPCC, and Richland County Jail Corrections Officers Thomas Gordon and Chelsie Betancourt.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, in Cleveland.
The lawyers who filed the lawsuit allege all of the defendants violated Marshall's due process rights under the 14th Amendment.
Jail inmate Maggie Copeland pronounced dead 34 minutes after arriving at hospital
From the beginning of Maggie Copeland's scheduled 15-day incarceration on May 5, 2022, at theRichland County Jail,she reportedly was experiencing obvious signs of drug withdrawal, but a lawsuit filed in federal court Aug. 4, 2023, alleges her condition was met with "deliberate indifference" by those in charge who refused to provide necessary medical care even though she told them she was a heroin addict.
Six days later, Copeland, 29, of Mansfield, was found near death in a cell at the jail.
Copeland was found unresponsive at 7:08 a.m. May 11, 2022, lying naked with her hair cut off and vomit coming out of her mouth. She was pronounced dead 34 minutes later atOhioHealth Mansfield Hospital.
Copeland's cause of death was listed as dehydration with renal failure, according to her autopsy report from the Montgomery County Medical Examiner's Office. The death was contributed to by drug abuse, the report indicates.
Inmate Candice Crose died shortly after arriving at hospital
Candice Crose, 32, of Mansfield, was pronounced dead April 14 at 9:52 a.m. at OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital after being transported from theRichland County Jail, according to Richland County Coroner's Investigator Bob Ball.
"Yesterday morning around 9 a.m., corrections staff and medical staff responded to a medical emergency in housing unit 3C11 involving inmate Candice Crose," Richland County Sheriff J. Steve Sheldon in a news release. "Life-saving measures were performed by the staff but unfortunately Crose died at the hospital shortly after arriving. As is custom practice, an investigation is ongoing."
Mansfield Fire Department fire and EMS were called to the jail April 14 at 9:09 a.m.
Alexander Rios
In April, a jury deliberated for 2½ hours before finding former Richland County corrections officer Mark Cooper, 57, not guilty of two counts of involuntary manslaughter and a single count of reckless homicide in connection with the death of Alexander Rios, 28, in 2019.
Cooper was acorrections officer in the Richland County Jailwhen he and several of his co-workers struggled to contain Rios, who had burst out of his holding cell and run past them, into the book-in area on Sept. 19, 2019.
Rios went limp after the struggle and never regained consciousness. His family took him off life support eight days later.
The court case was the second for Cooper after the first trial ended in a mistrial.
A $4 million settlement was reachedin the wrongful death case.
lwhitmir@gannett.com
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