Attorneys for a woman who died at the Silverdale Detention Center on May 16 said she was not given access to medicine she desperately needed.
Attorneys Bryan Hoss and Janie Parks Varnell said in a motion in Criminal Court that when Carol Rene White was checked into the jail on May 11 she had the medication and a court order directing that she receive the pills.
Instead, the three bottles of pills were kept in a sealed plastic bag during her stay at Silverdale, the attorneys said.
The attorneys said Ms. White made several calls to family members from the jail. Her mother-in-law said she was worried and was fearful due to not having been given her medications.
On May 16, five days after she was sent to Silverdale for a 45-day DUI sentence, she was found unresponsive in her cell. She was declared dead at the hospital.
The prescriptions were for Divalproex, used to treat bipolar disorder and to help prevent seizures, and Levothyroxine thyroid medication. A third was Hydroxyzine for sleep assistance.
The motion says Ms. White's doctors "strongly advised her that she could not, under any circumstances, stop taking her medication, which included Divalproex and Levothyroxine."
The attorneys asked for a hearing "to show cause why the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office should not be adjudged in contempt of court."
Criminal Court Judge Tom Greenholtz conducted the hearing and found that the attorneys did not have standing to bring the motion.
The attorneys maintain that the judge on his own could find the Sheriff's Office in contempt.
They said there should be punishment "including injunctive relief, fines and/or other punishment as may be necessary, appropriate and just for such contemptuous conduct."