THE JONATHAN MAGBIE CASE: AN UPDATE

He is one of the D.C. government's latest victims. Magbie, a
27-year-old quadriplegic sentenced to 10 days in the D.C. jail, died
on Sept. 24 while in the city's custody. Late yesterday, the Health
Department released a report on its investigation into Magbie's death.
One conclusion: Greater Southeast Community Hospital did not comply
with federal and local rules while Magbie was in its care. And this:
"Hospital staff failed to evaluate the appropriateness of the
emergency department's discharge plan for [Magbie] on Sept. 20, given
his prior history and equipment needs."

But the report also covers significant events at the Correctional
Treatment Facility, which will be examined in a future column. Those
who prepared it did not, however, interview inmates. Read on.

The D.C. Corrections Department maintains that Magbie was fine during
his last night at the Correctional Treatment Facility and that he was
never locked in his room. Darryl Carter, an inmate housed at the CTF
at the time, disputed that account ["Jonathan Magbie's Last Hours,"
op-ed, Nov. 6]. Now a second CTF inmate, Jason Foster, has weighed in
with a letter of his own.

"I have read the newspaper and seen everything that Mr. D Carter said.
And yes, it is all true about the Last Hours of Mr. Jonathan Magbie,"
Foster wrote in a Nov. 10 letter.

"That night was a night that I think me and Mr. Carter will never
forget. I Just Keep seeing it over and over again in my mind. Mr.
Magbie was unable to make any movement at all, but to use his chin to
move his wheelchair to get attention to the officer on duty that he
need something. I can recall," Foster wrote, "around 10:50 pm, I heard
the officer say to him 'if you don't get in the room and close your
door, I'm going to lock you in.' I could not believe that she said
that. After that, Mr. Carter and I came out around 11:30 to clean up
the unit, And she said, 'I'm not here to Babysit, if he don't stop
playing with me, I'm going to lock him down until I go off shift.' We
both told her 'That's not right, Ms. Singley.' She said 'So what if
you don't like it, you can step back in your rooms, too,' " wrote Foster.

"I have asthma and I know when I have trouble breathing and yes, Mr.
Jonathan Magbie had problems breathing that night. When I left to
leave for a outside medical, I looked in his room and his lips was
'dry and whitish.' But his door was still locked. When I returned from
my outside Medical, they told me that 'Jon had been taken to the
Hospital cause he couldn't breath,' I never seen him again," Foster
wrote.

Foster said that as a result of the Nov. 6 column in which he was
named, Corrections Department staff members pulled him out of his cell
on Nov. 8 or 9, and on Nov. 10, and made him write down what he heard
and saw on the night of Sept. 23.

"Please Help His Family Find out what really Happened To There Loved
One, Mr. Jonathan Magbie Cause it could have been all avoided," wrote
Foster.

City officials, who are pointing fingers at the hospital, still won't
say where Magbie was when, according to the chief medical examiner,
his death was caused by "acute respiratory failure following
dislodgement of tracheostomy tube." Greater Southeast issued a
statement last night that said: "We would welcome a fair and impartial
review, but question whether the District's conflict of interest in
this matter allows it to be fair and impartial."

Wait until next week.