A SON'S DEATH, A MOTHER'S UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

Mary Scott was doing fine as she reviewed with me by phone the events that
unfolded after Monday, Sept. 20, when Judge Judith Retchin sentenced her
27-year-old son, a first-time offender and quadriplegic -- paralyzed from
the neck down -- to 10 days in the D.C. jail for possession of marijuana.
Scott, however, lost her composure when she got to Friday, Sept. 24, the
day she took her son's much-needed ventilator to the jail. You would have
choked up, too.

Since his injury in a car crash at age 4, Jonathan Magbie had been under
nursing care 24 hours a day. A chin-operated wheelchair was his mode of
transportation. The 24-hour coverage was a little too intrusive, Scott told
me, so the family limited the care to 20 hours and took care of the rest
themselves.

When Scott heard that Judge Retchin had announced in court that Jonathan
would get the care he needed in jail, she felt a little better.

Her fears were also lessened after she spoke with Janet Holt, the associate
nursing director at the Correctional Treatment Facility (CTF), the jail's
annex, where Jonathan was to be incarcerated. Boniface Cobbina, Jonathan's
lawyer, had arranged for Scott to speak with Holt on the day Jonathan was
sent to jail. Holt assured Scott that the CTF could perform the lung
suctioning procedure that Jonathan required. In response to Holt's
questions about Jonathan's medications, Scott said her son might know what
they were, but she didn't believe he knew the prescribed dosages, so she
immediately arranged for Jonathan's nurse to fax the correct information to
Holt. Scott followed up in a phone call and was assured by Holt that the
fax had been received and would be given to "Dr. Malek." Corrections
spokesman Bill Meeks advised that Dr. Malek is Malek Malekghasemi, the
CTF's associate medical director.

Scott said she received a call from a woman at the jail on Jonathan's first
day in the city's custody, telling her that he had been taken to Greater
Southeast Community Hospital and that she should come to the jail to
collect his wheelchair. The jailer called back within minutes, however, and
told Scott she could not pick up the wheelchair.

Scott rushed to the hospital with her daughter and a friend of Jonathan's.
They were joined by their lawyer, Cobbina, whom Scott had called from the
hospital. Together they spoke with one of the correctional officers who had
accompanied Jonathan to the hospital and were told he was comfortable. They
were not allowed to see him, though Scott said she did receive a call at
home around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday from the same correctional officer, who said
Jonathan was still resting well at the hospital.

Scott was surprised to learn from one of Jonathan's friends later in the
day that he had been returned to the jail's annex. She called Cobbina and
told him that Jonathan needed his ventilator. (The Corrections Department
acknowledged that on the night Jonathan was taken to the hospital, he
informed the corrections medical staff that he used a ventilator at night.)
She said she also called Malekghasemi and told him the same thing. She
recalled the doctor saying: "I don't know why the judge sent him here." He
said he was going to call the judge "to talk some sense into her," Scott said.

The next day, Wednesday, Sept. 22, Cobbina visited Jonathan in jail and
reported that her son said he still required his ventilator, Scott said. On
Thursday Cobbina called Scott and told her that Corrections officials had
agreed that she could take Jonathan's ventilator to the CTF on Friday
morning at 10 a.m.

Scott arrived around 9:30 a.m. and waited in the lobby for 45 minutes
before Malekghasemi came to see her. She handed him Jonathan's ventilator,
a suction cap and a pediatric device to be used because the opening in his
throat was so small. Malekghasemi took the ventilator but told her he
didn't need the other equipment and then left. Scott asked the guard if she
could visit her son but was told she couldn't because she did not have an
appointment.

At the time Scott met the doctor, Jonathan had already been transported to
Greater Southeast Community Hospital on an emergency basis. Scott said the
doctor knew Jonathan had been taken away but didn't tell her. "If I had
known, I could have told them what might have been wrong with him and how
they could help him," she told me, distress obvious in her voice.

Later that day -- Friday, Sept. 24 -- five days after Jonathan Magbie was
placed in the custody of the government of the District of Columbia, Scott
received a call telling her that her son was dead.

Cobbina, in a separate interview, said Malekghasemi also told him on
Tuesday, Sept. 21, that he would call Judge Retchin with his concerns about
Jonathan's incarceration, given his medical condition. The Corrections
Department, in an e-mail response to my questions, confirmed that "A [CTF]
physician spoke with the judge's law clerk on September 21, 2004, and
expressed his personal concern that inmate Magbie did not belong in the
D.C. jail. The physician shared his personal concern that inmate Magbie
should not be incarcerated given the nature of the sentence and his overall
medical condition. The physician did not request that the judge order Mr.
Magbie's return to Greater Southeast Community Hospital."

The circumstances leading up to Scott's taking the ventilator to the CTF
are in dispute.

In an e-mail response, Corrections wrote that on Wednesday afternoon
Jonathan's lawyer called the CTF physician and indicated that a ventilator
might be available from his mother and that the attorney would call the CTF
physician back with confirmation. The CTF physician called the attorney on
Thursday and an agreement was made to deliver the ventilator the next day.

Cobbina, on the other hand, said he told Malekghasemi on Thursday that
Jonathan needed his ventilator and that the doctor said he didn't want
"gadgets" introduced into the jail because they would only "complicate"
matters. "Twenty minutes later," Cobbina said, the doctor called back and
said, "Why don't you ask her to bring it in the morning?"

The death of Jonathan Magbie, I have learned, is now under investigation by
the D.C. Department of Health and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
That's not enough. The D.C. inspector general and the D.C. Council may wish
to weigh in as well, lest the informal network of D.C. bureaucrats who look
out for each other attempts to make Jonathan's death appear as natural as
the sunset. It wasn't.

These questions need answering.

Why on earth should Jonathan, a first-time offender who had lived most of
his life in a wheelchair as a quadriplegic and who required virtually
round-the-clock nursing, have been sent to jail for simple possession of
marijuana?

Why is it that even after the Corrections Department learned on Monday that
inmate Jonathan Magbie needed a medical device the jail did not have and
would not provide, and even after an associate medical director determined
on Tuesday that Jonathan's medical condition weighed against jail
incarceration -- why is it that he nonetheless languished in jail until
Friday, the day he died?

Finally, consider this exchange between Judge Retchin and Jonathan Magbie's
lawyer at the time, Nikki Lotze, back on Jan. 14 at a status hearing:

Judge: Good morning. Where is Mr. Magbie?

Lawyer: Your Honor, I wonder if the court would consider waiving his
presence; he was hospitalized. He's not hospitalized right now, but he was
released earlier in the week having had a bout of pneumonia.

Judge: No, I would not waive his presence. He needs to be here.

Lawyer: I'll see if I can get him here later in the day, your honor. But,
could we waive his presence just for purposes of scheduling matters and
then I'll have him. . . .

Judge: I'll issue a warrant for his arrest. It will be no bond as to Mr.
Magbie.

What a sweetheart.