CENTENNIAL, Colo. September 27, 2024— A lawsuit alleging that four private hospital security officers used excessive force while restraining a patient who died has been settled. The terms of the agreement were not announced.
The lawsuit was filed by the attorneys for Dedra Jones in November 2022, the wife of Matthew Jones who died in 2021at St. Mary-Corwin Hospital, reports the Pueblo Chieftain. The lawsuit alleged security officers Anthony Virant, Randy Vialpondo, Anthony Ruff, and Drake Castro knowingly acted with “reckless disregard” when they applied use of force, including an extended neck restraint, on Jones as they restrained him near the entrance of the emergency room.
The ordeal began in February 2021 when Jones was taken by ambulance to St. Mary-Corwin Hospital for painful swelling of his extremities, reports CVN. After his arrival, he experienced a mental health episode and said he didn’t want to receive any more treatment. He wanted to leave the hospital, which was against medical advice.
Jones allegedly refused to leave the hospital while he waited for a ride. He was only wearing shorts and a t-shirt, and it was cold outside.
Video surveillance footage of the incident showed the security officers talking to Jones for 25 minutes in the lobby of the hospital before confronting him and trying to push him out the door. Jones fell to the ground and the officers struggled with him, eventually turning him facedown on the floor. The altercation happened for several more minutes before a nurse came over and took Jones’ pulse. The nurse told the officers the incident looked like the George Floyd incident, reports the Pueblo Chieftain.
The coroner ruled Jones’ death was a homicide but that other factors, including morbid obesity, a potential cocktail of drugs in his system and an enlarged heart with cardiac fibrosis, contributed to his death.
Although all four security officers were charged with negligent homicide, the charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence.
The case was settled on August 15.