SEATTLE — Attorneys for the family of a 43-year-old mother of five who died after being booked into the South County Correctional Entity in Des Moines in 2018 while suffering from a mental-health crisis say the jail has agreed to settled a portion of a lawsuit for $2 million.
Seattle attorney Nathan Bingham said the partial settlement allowed the correctional facility, commonly known as SCORE, to dismiss as defendants 10 employees at the jail the lawsuit alleged were negligent or otherwise responsible for the death of Damaris Rodriquez, who was booked into the facility by King County sheriff’s deputies on Dec. 30, 2018, after her husband called 911 for help.
The money will be used to set up trusts for the couples’ five children, four of whom were under the age of 18 when she died.
The settlement leaves several claims against SCORE and its for-profit health care provider, Birmingham, Alabama-based Naphcare, intact after a federal judge rejected motions to dismiss them, and they appear headed to trial, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court.