TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A federal jury has awarded $975,000 to the estate of a woman who died in a Pinellas County Jail cell.
The jury made its decision on Friday in the case of Jennifer DeGraw, 50, who was taken into custody after her husband called the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office because she was acting out because she quit taking medicine to control her bipolar disorder.
According to court records, rather than taking DeGraw to a mental health hospital, two deputies used a stun gun on her and she was booked into jail on charges of battery on a law enforcement officer.
Craig Laporte, one of the attorneys for Michael DeGraw, said the law requires that in Baker Act cases, a jail’s staff to contact a licensed mental health receiving facility to send someone to examine the inmate. He said that wasn’t done in this case and alleges that the jail’s administrators were not aware of the law.