DUCHESNE, Utah — A judge has declared a nurse not guilty of negligent homicide in the death of a Duchesne County jail inmate in 2016.
In a ruling handed down on Monday night, Jana Clyde was acquitted of the charge related to the death of 21-year-old Madison Jensen, who was incarcerated in the jail at the time and died of dehydration. Prosecutors leveled charges against Clyde, accusing her of failing to offer the appropriate care. The case was previously dismissed and then reinstated by the Utah Court of Appeals.
"Her death resulted from many failures. First, her father demanded her arrest as a path to drug treatment. Then she was arrested and held at the jail on specious probable cause. And finally, institutional failure by the jail staff to recognize and treat her symptoms," 8th District Court Judge Don Torgerson wrote in the ruling.
However, in his ruling, Judge Torgerson said Clyde could not be found responsible for Jensen's death. Jensen had been arrested on drug charges.
"There were obvious institutional failures at the Duchesne County Jail that resulted in Madison’s death. But the question is whether Nurse Clyde failed to perceive the risk of death from dehydration because her conduct 'gross[ly] deviat[ed] from the standard of care that an ordinary person would exercise in all the circumstances,'" Judge Togerson wrote.
“Instead of taking her to a hospital to get checked out and treated for an accidental overdose or a lace, she was transported to Duchesne County Jail,” said Roper.
The judge said the symptoms that Clyde knew about were "within normal range" for someone experiencing opiate withdrawal, nor did corrections officers report anything unusual to the nurse.
"Nurse Clyde and all of the jail staff should have done things differently. But none of them perceived the risk of death here, even though everyone had similar medical training," he wrote.
Roper remembers getting the call from her friend.
“She was begging for so long and wrote notes. She wasn’t even supposed to be in jail,” she said.
According to state prosecutors, Jensen weighed 127 pounds on her first day in jail. When she was found dead of dehydration days later, she allegedly weighed only 87 pounds.
“She was definitely neglected. There’s no reason that should’ve happened,” she said.
Jensen’s loved ones won’t let Monday’s decision stop their pursuit of justice.
“Something needs to be done. I don’t think it’s ever going to stop until something gets done because there’s no reason it ever should have happened. Someone needs to be held responsible,” she said.
