REPORT CLEARS D.C. JUDGE OF MISCONDUCT IN INMATE DEATH

An inquiry into the death last year of a 27-year-old quadriplegic inmate
has concluded that D.C. Superior Court made only a "limited and uninformed"
inquiry about the man's medical needs before ordering him to serve a 10-day
sentence for marijuana possession.

But the investigation by the Commission on Judicial Disabilities and Tenure
cleared the judge in the case, Judith E. Retchin, of judicial misconduct,
concluding that she acted within the law and made an effort to ensure that
a D.C. jail would be able to care for Jonathan Magbie.

The report cited "failures of communication among the participants in this
tragic sequence of events."

The commission's report, released yesterday, is one of three official
inquiries into Magbie's death Sept. 24. An earlier investigation by the
D.C. Department of Health faulted Greater Southeast Community Hospital for
failing to provide adequate care to Magbie after he was brought there from
the jail. The Office of the Inspector General is examining the actions of
the jail staff.

From the beginning, Magbie's family had focused its fury on the judge, who
rejected probation -- a common sentence for a first-time misdemeanor
offender -- and instead ordered him jailed for 10 days.

In a demonstration outside the courthouse in the days after Magbie's death,
his mother, Mary Scott, called Retchin a killer and demanded her removal
from the bench.

Retchin, a judge for almost 13 years and a top federal prosecutor before
that, was interviewed by the commission, and the report provides the most
extensive public account of her thinking in the case beyond what emerged in
court transcripts.

The judge told the commission that she was leaning toward probation but
reconsidered after Magbie told court investigators that he would continue
to use marijuana because it alleviated the discomfort of his disability.
Retchin said Magbie's attitude and the fact that he had been arrested with
a gun -- a charge that was dropped as part of the plea -- convinced her
that he should receive more than probation.

According to the commission, she and her staff made an error in trying to
determine whether the jail could accommodate Magbie.

Retchin told her law clerk to find out from the chief judge's office
whether the jail could care for a paraplegic. Magbie was almost a total
quadriplegic, having slight use of one hand but otherwise paralyzed from
the neck down.

According to the commission, a staff member in the chief judge's office who
is the court's liaison with the jail incorrectly assumed that Magbie was a
sentenced felon and faced at least a year in prison, which would have meant
he was headed to a federal prison and not a D.C. jail. The result was that
Retchin was told that the jail could accommodate Magbie.

Retchin told the commission that if she had known at the time about
Magbie's acute medical needs, she would have come to a different decision,
"a period of home confinement, rather than a jail term, would have far
better served her sentencing objective," the report states, paraphrasing
the judge.

Instead, Magbie, who was paralyzed at age 4 when he was struck by a drunken
driver, was taken to jail in his motorized wheelchair.

Five days into his sentence, Magbie of Mitchellville died at Greater
Southeast. It was his second trip to the hospital, having been taken there
on his first day in jail. After the first hospitalization, a doctor at the
jail tried unsuccessfully to have Magbie returned to the hospital, fearing
that he would again need urgent medical care. But Magbie did not make it
back to the hospital until the next day, when he was already in distress.

Greater Southeast has said Magbie received "appropriate care."

The commission found that the judge, court staff and Department of
Corrections did not know at the time of Magbie's sentencing that his
compromised respiratory system was "susceptible to swift deterioration
requiring acute-care hospitalization."

Last night, Scott said Retchin should have known.

"If she wanted to know if they could accommodate him, she should have tried
to find out what his needs were," Scott said. "How can you say someone's
going to take care of you if you don't know what they need?"

The judge told the commission she did not know that Magbie regularly used a
ventilator to help him breathe, especially when he was sleeping. He had not
used one in court and his lawyer, Boniface Cobbina, made no mention of his
needing a ventilator, which jail officials later said they were not
equipped to administer.

In an interview yesterday, Chief Judge Rufus G. King III said the court had
taken steps to improve the way it handles defendants with serious medical
conditions. The medical alert forms that are completed for such defendants
have been revised to require more information. Judges have been told that
in the most serious cases, they should handle the inquiries directly, not
leave them exclusively to court staff.

"It's definitely a lesson for all of us," King said.