Medical and Civil Rights Violation Trial Begins

Imka Pope will finally get her day in court. Pope filed a lawsuit against King County and several jail employees,claiming medical malpractice and that her civil rights had been violated when she was allegedly left to give birth on the floor of her King County Jail cell after being arrested in 1997 for sleeping on a Metro bus stop bench. Pope, who was 27 at the time, and severely mental ill, told corrections officers she was pregnant, however, neither corrections officers or jail health officials did anything to treat the pregnancy or her mental health illness.

According to the lawsuit, Pope was admitted to the psychiatric ward of the jail and placed on 23-hour lockdown as her mental health continued to deteriorate, though she was able to tell a nurse that she was pregnant and worried. The suit says the nurse didn’t believe her and thought she wanted “an extra sandwich.”

The lawsuit says that on November 21, 1997, Pope went into labor, called for help on her cell intercom, and gave birth “alone, terrified and in terrible pain” while on the jail cell floor. Pope’s complaint states that the guard who answered the intercom didn’t believe her. Help was called only after a guard heard the baby, who was born with a heart defect and neurological damage, crying.

The lawsuit seeks monetary damages of an unspecified amount.


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