Dezaree Archuleta, 18, had harmed herself at least twice while she was behind bars.
DENVER — Mental-health workers repeatedly ignored signs a woman being held at the El Paso County jail was suicidal in the weeks before she took her own life, according to a federal lawsuit filed in Denver.
Dezaree Archuleta, 18, died in her cell on June 9, 2022, after demonstrating “consistent, ongoing and obvious signs that she was suicidal and at significant risk of self-harm,” according to the lawsuit.
The suit alleges that health-care providers employed by a company called Wellpath repeatedly ignored Archuleta’s statements that she was suicidal – and they turned her down when she asked to see a psychiatrist and be given medication.
On multiple occasions, according to the lawsuit, Wellpath staff members decided not to put her on suicide watch, referred to in the jail as being on a “red sheet.”
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Officer deputy who found her was Andrew Fodera. When investigators interviews him a few days after Archuleta’s death, he said, “I don’t understand how she wasn’t a ‘red sheet.’ I would think I would have left her on a ‘red sheet’ if it were up to me.”
“People who are in custody deserve to be taken care of,” said attorney Mari Newman, who represents Archuleta’s mother, Shelly Romero. “Because somebody is in custody is not a justification for a death sentence. And that is certainly true for Dezaree.”
A message left for a Wellpath spokeswoman by 9NEWS was not returned Monday.
The lawsuit was filed by the estate of Dezaree Archuleta and the young woman’s mother, Romero.
“She was 18 years old,” Romero said. “You know, she deserved some kind of chance. … That was taken away from her.”
The lawsuit names Wellpath; its parent company, H.I.G. Capital, and three of is providers who were assigned to the El Paso County jail in 2022: Christine Mohr, a mental health administrator; Edward Keaveny, a licensed marriage and family therapist, and Michelle Weolowski, a licensed professional counselor.
El Paso County’s contract with Wellpath ended earlier this year, and a new company now handles health care – including mental health services – for inmates at its jail.
Wellpath continues to operate in jails in Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas, Eagle and Weld counties.
“One thing that many people don’t know is a lot of our corrections facilities save money by contracting with so-called care providers,” Newman said.
She said some of them opt not to provide adequate care, instead going for “the lowest possible amount of care that they can in order to save money.”
“That’s reprehensible,” Newman said.
Archuleta was arrested May 17, 2022, on burglary and robbery charges. During the 23 days she was in the El Paso County jail, according to the lawsuit, there were 16 incidences of her “expressing suicidality and multiple other risk factors that would have made it obvious to any mental health provider or lay person that she had a serious and substantial risk of suicide.”
She gouged herself with a screw in one incident and another time hit herself in the head until she drew blood, according to the lawsuit.
After she asked to see a psychiatrist so she could receive psychotropic medications, a Wellpath counselor “callously handed her a few pamphlets and told her to use her coping skills,” according to the lawsuit.
El Paso County paid Archuleta’s family $1 million earlier this year.
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