A Halethorpe man was supposed to be checked every 15 minutes while held at the Baltimore County Detention Center, because of a heart condition and a history of seizures.
But internal jail surveillance video obtained by The Examiner shows when Michael Payne, 45, had a heart attack and died there Dec. 30, it took staff more than two hours to tend to his dead body.
“That was the last straw for me,” said Lt. Dave Berry, a longtime correctional officer who retired after Payne?s death. “The medical treatment there is so inadequate. This guy was having seizures. He was losing his bowels. He needed to be sent out for medical treatment, but the county wanted to save money. How can you put a price on somebody?s life?”
James O?Neill, the administrator at the detention center, did not respond to a request for comment.
Internal jail records show Payne ? a father of four held on a $10,000 bail for a charge of disorderly conduct ? required medical treatment four times in four days before his death, but was never taken to a hospital.
On Dec. 27, upon his arrival at the detention center, Payne began “shaking in an uncontrollable manner,” according to the records.
An officer asked him, “Mr. Payne! Can you hear me?” but Payne did not respond, the records state. Eventually jail staff was able to revive him using ammonia.
The next day, medical staff found Payne injured from a fall with a bruised face. The day after that, Payne was “shaking all over his body,” attempted to stand, but fell and hit his head against the wall, requiring medical attention, jail records show.
On Dec. 30, before his death, jail guards found that Payne had defecated himself and on his mattress, which was cleaned. Twelve hours later, an officer monitoring the video of his room noticed Payne had stopped moving.
Berry, who was the shift commander the night Payne died, said the officer who was supposed to check if Payne was breathing every 15 minutes didn?t do so, because she wasn?t trained properly. The officer instead said she simply watched the inmates on video surveillance, Berry said.
“It makes me sick,” Payne?s older sister, Cathy Stachura, 50, of Glen Burnie, said after learning of his treatment at the jail. “I did not leave my bed the whole day, the whole night. He left four children behind. I knew all along there was something wrong.”
Reached in Florida, Payne?s father, Michael, 70, said he?s seeking answers about his son?s death.
“I suspect he had a stroke,” he said. “They certainly didn?t do their jobs. There were supposed to be checking on him. Somebody really screwed up.”
