A man says Vernal police disrupted an intimate moment of mourning with his deceased wife of 58 years when they searched his house for her prescription medication without a warrant within minutes of her death.
Barbara Alice Mahaffey died of colon cancer in her bedroom last May. Ben D. Mahaffey, 80, said he was distraught and trying to make sure his wife's body would be taken to the funeral home with dignity, when he says officers insisted he help them look for the drugs.
Barbara Mahaffey died at 12:35 a.m. with Mahaffey, a Navy medic in the Korean War, and his friend, an EMT, at her side. In addition to police, a mortician and a hospice worker arrived at the home about 12:45 a.m., Mahaffey said. He said he doesn't know how police came to be there.
"I was indignant to think you can't even have a private moment. All these people were there and they're not concerned about her or me. They're concerned about the damn drugs. Isn't that something?" Mahaffey said.
Mahaffey said he was treated as if he were going to sell the painkillers, which included OxyContin, oxycodone and morphine, on the street.
Just a few minutes after his wife dies, police walk into his house uninvited assuming all the while that he has been transformed into a drug dealer. Way to serve the public. You can bet your sweet ass that if Mahaffey was a cop, the simple courtesy of not raiding his house for drugs would certainly have been extended to him.
Here's a TV news story about the incident and the resulting lawsuit.
The second incident is much more disturbing and claimed another victim in our War on Drugs.
The victim in this case is Jamie Lynn Russell.
Her death came just hours after she went to the hospital seeking help for severe abdominal pain.
“Jamie was seeking help; she was in extreme pain,” family friend Kemper Kimberlin said.
Hospital staff reported Jamie wouldn’t cooperate, in too much pain to even lie down, so employees asked a Pauls Valley police officer to assist.
Unfortunately, when police found two prescription pills that didn’t belong to Jamie, police took her to jail for drug possession.
That’s where Jamie sat for less than two hours before being found unresponsive.
“There is nothing my staff in the jail could’ve done differently,” Garvin County sheriff Larry Rhodes said.
Sheriff Rhodes points out the hospital staff authorized Jamie’s release to their custody.
“She had a medical release from the hospital stating that she was fit for incarceration,” Rhodes said.
The state medical examiner’s office confirms Jamie died from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, where an embryo implants outside the uterus.
Two pills in pocket cost this woman her life. Confined to a cage in extreme agony to die. Seems like both the police and hospital staff are to blame here. Why would a doctor give the OK to haul a woman off to jail who was in such pain that she couldn't even lie down and why would a police officer want to do so? Why not wait until an obviously serious medical condition is brought under control first? That sheriff sounds like a real douchebag. Your staff could have sought out medical treatment - what the hell is this guy talking about? Too bad the reporter had no interest in challenging all the stupidity on display here. He should have asked the sheriff why a woman in such pain was brought to the jail and left alone. A camera should have been shoved in front of the doctor who allowed the woman to be carted off or, at least, a hospital administrator to answer for such incredibly poor judgment.
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