Attorney asks to bar evidence in trial over inmate’s death
When a suit filed by the estate of a Uniontown man who died in the Fayette County Prison goes to trial next month, the estate’s attorney wants to preclude various evidence in the case.
Terry Johnson, 48, died in the prison on Feb. 24, 2007. A forensic pathologist determined he died from peritonitis, which occurred when he developed a perforation in his intestine. The suit claimed Johnson started complaining of pain about 30 hours before his death, and alleged that if prison and medical workers had listened to him, he would have survived.
The suit names PrimeCare Medical, Inc., the heath care provider for the prison, former warden Larry Medlock and employees Anthony DelVerme, Kevin Locke and David Skiles.
Attorney Noah Geary, who represent Johnson’s wife, Lorraine, asked that a medical expert for PrimeCare Medical be barred from testifying in the federal trial.
Dr. Arnold Lentnek “has no qualifications whatsoever to offer the opinions he intends to offer at this trial,” Geary wrote.
Lentnek is a disease/internal medicine doctor and opined that there were “significant” levels of cocaine in his blood, which would have rendered Johnson unable to reliably communicate the nature and location of his symptoms.
That would have led to a difficulty of evaluating Johnson, Lentnek opined.
Geary argued that Lentnek is not qualified to offer opinions about the potential impact that illegal drugs would have had on Johnson.
Additionally, Geary asked U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Lisa Pupo Lenihan that Johnson’s death certificate not be introduced at trial. The death certificate says that cocaine use contributed to Johnson’s death, a finding Geary argued is “wholly unsupported and wholly unsupportable.”
“The autopsy report makes absolutely no reference whatsoever to cocaine use — let alone that cocaine use was a significant condition contributing to the death of Johnson. The cause of death was severe, diffuse peritonitis,” Geary wrote. “The fact that a toxicology report indicates that cocaine was in Johnson’s system in no way supports this conclusion.”
Geary acknowledged that a jury could hear that Johnson had cocaine in his system, but said that the death certificate would prejudice a jury because “it is false, misleading and constitutes inadmissible hearsay.”
Geary also asked the judge to stop the defendants from introducing testimony that Johnson took money from his wife and daughter, and that he admitted to a medical professional that he had a $200/day crack cocaine habit and had been using the drug for four years. He also asked the judge to preclude defense attorneys from introducing information about what was in the initial protection-from-abuse petition and what Johnson did to violate it.