$1.9 Million Settlement in Washington Jail Death Includes Policy Changes
by Chuck Sharman
Under terms of a settlement reached on October 15, 2025, Washington’s Pend Orielle County agreed to pay $1.9 million to the Estate of Jacob Mitchell, a detainee who died at the County jail in 2023 of complications from untreated diabetes. The County also agreed to several policy changes sought by the Estate “to prevent future harm,” said its attorney, Lauren I. Freidenberg-McBride of MacDonald Hoague & Bayless in Seattle.
According to the complaint she later filed on his behalf, Mitchell, 29, suffered from Type I diabetes when he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the killing of his mother, 64-year-old Carolyn Thompson-Mitchell at their home in February 2022. The Spokane Spokesman-Review said that Mitchell told responding cops who asked him why he killed her, “I don’t know, I lost my mind.”
When booked into the jail pretrial, his insulin pump was confiscated. But no doctor saw him to develop a treatment plan. Instead, “medically unlicensed, untrained correctional officers managed Mr. Mitchell’s diabetic care,” the complaint continued. A notice posted in the jail advised staff to test his blood sugar five minutes before each meal and treat any high reading with an insulin dose, repeating as needed until the readings declined into normal range. “Besides this ‘notice,’” the complaint said, “there were no other evaluation or treatment plans in place.”
In May 2022, Mitchell was transferred to Eastern State Hospital for mental health treatment, after a County Counseling Services report recorded his “deterioration while in custody” and his “inability to manage his diabetes.” The report also noted his “previous suicide attempts,” as well as an “inability to offer intelligible speech” and “defecating in his cell.”
When Mitchell was discharged back to the jail, a staffer noticed that the hospital sent along “totally different instructions than what we were previously using” for his diabetes. The jail decided to stick with its limited protocol, and after that, “records integral to continuity of care are completely absent from his health care and medical records,” the complaint continued—save for “handwritten notes observing his behavior or noting administration of insulin without any information as to the time of the administration, amount of insulin, or blood sugar reading.”
By early 2023, Mitchell had developed noticeable tremors. By April, he was crying out for help due to diabetic pain. Ignoring his “difficulty moving, getting up from the floor of his cell, and pulling up his pants,” the complaint alleged, guards blamed him for being too slow, subjecting him to name-calling and falsely recording that he refused his insulin. Mitchell was treated at a hospital for low blood sugar on April 2, 2023. But two days later, he was too weak and shaky for a finger-prick blood sugar test.
He made another round-trip to the hospital that day for testing and treatment. But back at the jail, he again couldn’t pull up his pants. Guard Cameron Ferguson then provided a dose of long-lasting insulin—which proved to be a fatal overdose after his earlier hospital treatments. Mitchell assumed a prayerful position over his cell bunk and didn’t move for almost five hours until a nurse touched him and found his body was “hard as a rock.”
With the aid of Freidenberg-McBride and fellow attorneys Tim Ford and Braden Pence, Mitchell’s father, Harry Joe Mitchell, filed suit in April 2025 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, accusing the County and its jailers under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 of deliberate indifference to Mitchell’s serious medical need, in violation of his Eighth Amendment rights, as well as denying the father’s right of association with his son, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process guarantee. The complaint also made state-law claims for outrage and negligence.
The parties then proceeded to reach their settlement agreement with the payout to the Estate, which included costs and fees for its attorneys. In addition, the jail agreed to make several policy changes, including installing cell sensors in single occupancy cells to monitor detainee vital signs and activities. A wrist monitor will also be offered to any detainee who “(1) identifies a chronic medical condition at the time of the medical intake at the jail, or (2) jail staff later learns has a chronic medical condition.” Moreover, an overhaul to annual staff training and curriculum will “[e]mphasize diabetes management and care,” including “monitoring procedures, blood sugar testing, insulin injections, and identifying signs or symptoms possibly related to diabetes.” See: Est. of Mitchell v. Pend Orielle Cty., USDC (E.D. Or.), Case No. 2:25-cv-00108.
Additional source: Newport Miner, Spokane Spokesman-Review
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Related legal case
Est. of Mitchell v. Pend Orielle Cty.
| Year | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Cite | USDC (E.D. Or.), Case No. 2:25-cv-00108 |
| Level | District Court |