FAMILY AWARDED $52,000 IN JAIL DEATH

Jurors Found County Personnel Failed To Quickly Summon Medical Care After
Inmate Fell From Bunk.

The relatives of a Montecito man who died on the floor of his County Jail
cell have been awarded $52,000 in punitive damages by federal jurors who
found that a supervising officer and two nurses didn't properly respond to
the inmate's medical needs.

Drew Walsh, 32, had been bingeing on cocaine for days before his May 3, 1995
arrest. Testimony at the civil trial in Los Angeles revealed he was
suffering severe symptoms of heroin withdrawal, but never received any
medical treatment while in custody. About 12 hours after his arrest, he
plunged headfirst from a top bunk onto the concrete floor of his jail cell
and died moments later.

An autopsy by a county pathologist concluded Walsh died of "acute toxicity"
from drugs in his system and heart damage caused by chronic use of cocaine
and heroin. That combination of factors resulted in an unpredictable
"cardiac arrhythmia" that swiftly killed Walsh, lawyers for the county argued.

The official cause of death was disputed, however, by attorneys handling a
lawsuit brought by Walsh's children and his mother. They unsuccessfully
tried to convince jurors Walsh died of a brain concussion caused by the
six-foot fall from his "upper death bunk."

After deliberating for weeks, jurors unanimously concluded neither jailers
nor nurses working there had caused Walsh's death. However, the jury found
that a jail supervisor "failed to take reasonable action to summon medical
care" for Walsh and that two Health Care Services nurses were medically
negligent in their actions.

After deliberating for another week on the issue of punitive damages, those
jurors decided Wednesday to award the family $52,067 -- an amount that
didn't seem to please either side.

"We may move (ask the judge) to set aside the punitive awards," County
Counsel Shane Stark said Thursday, "on the grounds that the evidence didn't
support them. We are considering it."

Yet, he added, "the amount of damages is nowhere close to what the
plaintiffs (relatives) had sought" and the jury's verdicts "were largely
favorable to the county."

Lawyers for the family had asked jurors to award several million dollars to
Walsh's relatives.

"Our reaction is mixed," said Craig Price, a Santa Barbara attorney who
represented them. "On top of the original verdicts, these punitive damage
awards demonstrate the jury's strong disappointment with the treatment of
Drew Walsh at the jail. On the other hand, we are disappointed the jury
didn't find that these defendants acted with 'deliberate indifference,'
which would have opened the door to significantly higher damages."

By finding none of the jail employees violated Walsh's constitutional
rights, jurors also precluded his family from collecting hundreds of
thousands of dollars in attorney and legal fees from the county, lawyers said.