CVN screenshot of plaintiff attorney Nick Rowley delivering his opening statement
Centennial, CO - A trial over allegations that a hospital private security staff’s use of supposedly excessive force while restraining a patient caused his death ended in a mid-trial settlement last month, and the full proceedings were recorded gavel-to-gavel by Courtroom View Network.
Attorneys for plaintiff Dedra Jones, wife of decedent Matthew Jones and the Catholic Health Initiatives hospital network announced they reached a confidential settlement on August 15, two days after an Arapahoe County jury heard opening statements in the wrongful death lawsuit.
Jones claimed poorly trained security staff at St. Mary-Corwin Hospital subjected her husband to positional asphyxia while restraining him near the entrance to the emergency room, and that his death was ruled a homicide by the local coroner. However the hospital argued Jones suffered a cardiac arrest due to drugs in his system, and that the restraint hold in question wasn’t used for long enough to stop his heart.
The full proceedings are available with a subscription to CVN's online trial video library, which also includes hundreds of civil trials in range of practice areas featuring many of the top plaintiff and defense attorneys in the country.
Jones traveled by ambulance to the hospital in February 2021 after suffering painful swelling in his extremities. After arriving he allegedly suffered a mental health episode and declined further treatment, stating that he wished to leave the facility against medical advice.
Wearing only shorts and t-shirt and lacking a ride home, Jones told hospital staff he refused to go outside into the cold. Four members of hospital security staff arrived, and after verbal negations with Jones placed him in a restraint hold that his attorneys maintain cut off blood flow to his brain despite a nurse who witnessed the incident warning them of the potential dangers and asking them to release him.
Attorney Nick Rowley of Trial Lawyers For Justice, who delivered the opening statement on behalf of Dedra Jones, told jurors that Matthew never acted violently and his death was the entirely unnecessary result of an overly aggressive security team who rebuffed the nurse’s request he be released.
Attorney Evan Thomas of Rendigs Fry Kiely and Dennis LLP, in his opening on behalf of the hospital, argued the security staff had extensive training in former careers as law enforcement and correctional officers, and that a potent cocktail of illegal drugs in Matthew’s system could have caused his death even without the use of a restraint hold.
CVN screenshot of defense attorney Evan Thomas delivering his opening statement
After the trial’s conclusion, Rowley told CVN that while the amount of the settlement is confidential the end of the proceedings is a great relief to the Jones family.
“Finally there can now be closure to a very sad chapter,” Rowley said. “And yes, justice was served as we hoped it would be.”
Defense attorney Michael Foley declined to comment on the case beyond stating that the settlement amount is confidential.
Rowley explained that while Jones did have drugs in his system and refused to leave the hospital while acting irrationally, that those “bad facts” did not overcome the importance to the jury of the evidence showing the security staff allegedly used excessive force.
"Owning ‘bad facts’ and bringing compassion to mental illness and addiction is something that was well displayed with the direct examination of my client Dedra Jones,” Rowley detailed. “That is something I believe could really help a lot of people out there trying tough cases.”
Dedra Jones was also represented by attorney Jason Jordan of Jordan Law.
The case is captioned Dedra Jones, as personal representative of Matthew Jones v. Catholic Health Initiatives Colorado, et al.
E-mail David Siegel at dsiegel@cvn.com