STAPLETON V. LOZANO, 2025 WL 86534 (5th Cir. 2025)
Perhaps the headline will garner some negative comments from my firefighter and paramedic friends (yes, I know what firefighters and cops all have in common. If you don’t know, just ask any firefighter). But if you’re awake at 0400 hrs dealing with a subject who might be experiencing a medical event, getting the medical crew (whether paramedics or a jail nurse) there sooner — much sooner — rather than later may well be the smartest thing you can do.
In Progreso, Texas, Joshua Stapleton was arrested for public intoxication. In the search of Stapleton’s vehicle incident to the arrest, officers found four hydrocodone bitartrate pills, two diazepam pills, one acetaminophen and hydrocodone pill and two gabapentin capsules. They also found a clear package labeled “hemp” and two burnt pipes. During the booking process, Stapleton exhibited signs of intoxication and informed the arresting officer he was not feeling well. The officer placed Stapleton in a holding cell.
Stapleton was “swaying and generally unsteady on his feet” in the cell. After an officer entered to take the man’s temperature, Stapleton knelt on the floor, leaned forward slowly over his folded legs and began rocking back and forth. He remained in the same position for the next hour. Over the following few hours, Stapleton’s condition deteriorated. About three hours after his arrest, Stapleton was unconscious. The women in a neighboring cell shouted for help. Within a few minutes, officers entered the cell, administered Narcan and began chest compressions. Stapleton eventually died from “combined drug toxicity.” His family sued, alleging deliberate indifference to Stapleton’s serious medical needs.
The trial court denied the officers’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit based on qualified immunity. The officers appealed.
The court of appeals held the plaintiffs’ deliberate indifference claim against the officers was not valid. Based on the drugs they found in Stapleton’s car, plaintiffs claimed the officers should have known he was at risk of an overdose. The appellate court opined Stapleton’s initial symptoms were “ambiguous” and did not suggest a need for immediate medical attention. Even though Stapleton told the arresting officer that “he didn’t feel well,” he did not expressly ask for medical assistance.
The court also held there was insufficient evidence to prove officers acted with deliberate indifference — a necessary prerequisite to defeat a claim of qualified immunity. The court of appeals reversed the trial court’s denial of the motion to dismiss based on qualified immunity.
The arresting officer and other officers walked by Stapleton’s cell several times in the hours following his arrest and booking. They saw him standing, sitting and swaying in a manner that could have been consistent with intoxication. His behavior was also consistent with someone becoming increasingly disoriented and decreasingly conscious due to an overdose of several drugs (including some of the same drugs found in his car). Once the arresting officer heard the calls for help, he responded quickly to Stapleton’s medical distress, administering Narcan as paramedics attempted chest compressions.
Many officers can relate to someone behaving as Stapleton did, who just needed to “sleep it off.” Whether one agrees with the appellate court’s decision or not, it is possible — perhaps more than possible — that a check by paramedics when Stapleton’s disorientation began to worsen could have resulted in earlier medical intervention that could have saved his life. I think all my paramedic friends would agree that’s a very good reason to wake them up in the middle of the night.
Read more Ken Wallentine case reviews here.
NEXT: You have probably had an arrestee suddenly claim to have chest pain or difficulty breathing. You might have thought they were faking it to avoid going to jail. In this Today’s Tip video, risk management expert and Lexipol co-founder Gordon Graham outlines why you should always summon appropriate medical personnel.
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