$2M deal reached in lawsuit over young woman’s death at North Dakota jail in 2020
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A $2 million agreement has been reached in a lawsuit over the death of a young woman while she was in custody at a North Dakota county jail in 2020.
Lacey Higdem, 19, died of a drug overdose on June 4, 2020, hours after she arrived at the Rolette County Jail in Rolla, according to the lawsuit her mother, Jessica Allen, filed in 2022 against the county, two former correctional officers and medical providers. Attorneys for Allen said Thursday they had accepted the county’s offer.
A Bureau of Indian Affairs officer found Higdem while responding to a call about a woman yelling for help in the woods near Belcourt, according to the complaint.
Higdem, who appeared to be in a delusional state, was taken to a hospital but was improperly discharged and in need of further medical attention, the lawsuit alleged. She was taken to the jail and charged with disorderly conduct and preventing arrest, the complaint said.
The two correctional officers did not seek medical help despite obvious signs, and Higdem later was found not moving during a cell check, the complaint said. She was pronounced dead about nine hours after entering the jail, the complaint said.
Higdem died “as the direct and proximate result of the deliberate indifference to her serious medical needs” while in jail and because of medical malpractice at the hospital, the complaint said. She left a young child.
“No mother should have to live with the pain of knowing her child suffered alone when she could have been saved,” Allen said in a statement.
Higdem died from methamphetamine toxicity, lead counsel Andy Noel said.
The court has yet to enter the judgment, he said Friday. The North Dakota Insurance Reserve Fund will pay the $2 million.
The issues with the hospital resulted in a confidential resolution “to the satisfaction of all parties,” Noel said.
A phone message and emails left with attorneys for the county and the former correctional officers were not immediately returned.
The officers were charged with public servant refusing to perform duty, a misdemeanor. Through Alford pleas, they maintained their innocence while acknowledging evidence likely to convict them, and they received sentences that included unsupervised probation and court fees, according to court documents.
Per a court order, after they completed probation, their pleas were withdrawn, their cases dismissed and the files sealed.
By JACK DURA
Associated Press
