Source: Revolution News
32-year-old David Stojcevski was jailed 30 days for failing to pay a $772 traffic fine. David suffered 17 of those days with drug withdrawal and died on suicide watch in full view of a surveillance camera and guards who made no apparent effort to help or treat him until he stopped moving after having laid naked on the floor of his cell for 48 hours.
David Stojcevski lost 50 pounds, wilting away, twitching, under the glare of prison lights in the two-person cell he shared off and on with other inmates from June 11-June 27, 2014.
“This is shameful, substantial and unconscionable neglect,” said Robert Ihrie, senior partner at the firm handling a lawsuit against Macomb County on behalf of David Stojcevski’s family.
Stojcevski died of benzodiazepine withdrawal, the attorney said, brought on by lack of his prescribed methadone treatment. His family is seeking a “substantial amount” from Macomb County in a wrongful death suit.
He died in agony, from a combination of obvious, untreated drug withdrawal and galling neglect. The following WDIV video report may be too graphic for some.
In the lawsuit, Stojcevski’s brother Vladimir accuses the jail of ignoring David’s repeated requests for medication. According to the complaint, David was brought to the jail June 11 for failing to appear on a careless driving charge and sentenced to 30 days in prison after he refused to pay a $772 fine. David reportedly told intake officers that he had been prescribed methadone, Xanax, and other medications before the arrest, and that he was at risk of withdrawal.
WDIV’s Dietz reported, “this video is very difficult to watch.The man on this video dies and he dies in a high observation unit, which is the cells that are most closely watched here at the Macomb County Jail… 32-year-old David Stojcevski will die, and his family wants you to witness it. So it never happens again.”
A lawyer for the county told WDIV that the suit “lacks legal merit,” and expects the family to lose when the case goes to trial. Macomb County has no plans to settle, according to the lawyer.
Source: Jailed for a Traffic Ticket – Watched as He Died in Cell
