3 FOUND NEGLIGENT IN ADDICT'S DEATH

Complicated Verdicts By Jury Were Mostly In County'S Favor, But Left Open
Punitive Damages For Family Of Man Who Died In Jail

The May 1995 death of heroin addict Drew Walsh in a Santa Barbara County
jail cell wasn't caused by officers or nurses there, although three of them
failed to properly respond to his medical needs, a federal jury in Los
Angeles concluded after weeks of deliberations.

Deciding a lawsuit brought by Walsh's relatives against five county
employees, the jury of four men and four women returned a complicated series
of unanimous verdicts Thursday that were mostly in the county's favor, but
left neither side completely satisfied. Jurors have so far awarded Walsh's
mother, Tommie Jean Pitts of Montecito, and his two children only $67 in
damages, while leaving open the possibility of also awarding them an unknown
amount of punitive damages.

Lawyers will present additional evidence and arguments to the jury Tuesday
on how much monetary punishment, if any, should be levied for the negligence
of a jail supervisor and two nurses on duty the night Walsh died. The jury
concluded that sheriff's Lt. Kathy Selander "failed to take reasonable
action to summon medical care" for Walsh and that Health Care Services
nurses Barbara Stockton and Barbara English were also medically negligent in
their actions.

None of the three could be reached for comment Friday.

There is no way to fully decipher the jury's findings because jurors are
forbidden to discuss the case with attorneys or anyone else until they have
reached a decision on the punitive damages. The jury had deliberated for 14
days over the past month before returning its verdicts.

A heroin addict for several years, Walsh, 32, had been binging on crack
cocaine for about two weeks before he was arrested on a burglary warrant the
afternoon of May 3, 1995, trial testimony revealed. About 12 hours after his
arrest, Walsh fell six feet from a top bunk onto the concrete floor of his
jail cell, lapsed into seizures and quickly died.

An autopsy by a county pathologist, Dr. Elizabeth Peacock, concluded Walsh
had died of "acute toxicity" from drugs in his system and heart damage
caused by chronic use of cocaine and heroin. Both those drugs, as well as a
potent anti-psychotic drug known as Mellarill, were found in blood samples
taken from Walsh immediately after his death.

Attorneys for his family, including Eric Ferrer of Los Angeles and Craig
Price of Santa Barbara, had disputed the official cause of death during the
18-day trial before U.S. District Court Judge Audrey B. Collins. They tried
to convince jurors that Walsh had instead died of a brain concussion caused
by landing head-first on the concrete. That deadly fall, they argued, could
have been prevented if Walsh had been properly treated for his obvious signs
of heroin withdrawal and not placed in a cell where the only available bed
was a top bunk.

"We are disappointed the jury did not agree with that," Price said.
Nonetheless, "I think Drew Walsh's family is gratified, after all this time,
that the jury has taken a strong exception to the action of the jail nurses
and jail officials by bringing in verdicts that say they not only were
negligent but their actions were so outrageous as to call for punitive damages."

Jake Stoddard, a deputy county counsel who handled the case, could not be
reached for comment. However, the verdict was seen as a definite victory for
the county by David Lawrence, a Los Angeles lawyer hired to defend the two
nurses. "The cause of death was a big issue here," Lawrence said. "I think
they (jurors) clearly accepted the evidence we presented that Walsh died of
an a heart arrhythmia brought on by long-term drug use."

The jury apparently felt Walsh's need for medicine to relieve his withdrawal
symptoms "was neglected while he was alive but that did not contribute to
his death," Lawrence added. "Obviously, we're not pleased with the findings
of negligence and (the prospect of) punitive damages."

In also finding that none of the defendants had violated Walsh's
constitutional rights by being "deliberately indifferent" to his serious
medical needs, jurors precluded his family from collecting hundreds of
thousands of dollars in attorney and legal fees from the county, the lawyers
said.