‘Deliberate Indifference’: Amazon Worker Went Blind After Missouri Cops Mistook His Stroke for DUI and Detained Him for 8 Hours, Lawsuit States
An Amazon worker is suing a Missouri sheriff’s office for detaining him for nearly eight hours under the suspicion that he was drunk driving when he was actually suffering a stroke.
Paul Espinosa, 54, and his wife filed the lawsuit against Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott, several deputies and detention officers, as well as a nurse and a doctor, alleging that these individuals did not provide him with timely medical treatment when he suffered a stroke, which caused him to go blind and sustain several other physical and mental impairments.
The complaint cited by Law&Crime states that just before 6 p.m. on July 21, 2022, Espinosa was driving to work at an Amazon warehouse when a deputy stopped him just as he pulled into the warehouse parking lot.
The deputy pulled Espinosa over because he noticed his car weaving and partially leaving the road and believed he might have been drunk, the suit states. Espinosa told the deputy that he had not consumed any alcohol that day and had only taken Ibuprofen.
The deputy conducted a breathalyzer test that resulted in a 0.000% reading, revealing Espinosa’s system was clear of any traces of alcohol. But during portions of a field sobriety test, the deputy noted that Espinosa was swaying and suffering leg tremors and took him into custody.
No alcohol, drugs, or drug paraphernalia were found when the deputy searched Espinosa’s car.
The complaint states that when Espinosa arrived at the jail, his “shirt and shorts were wet with sweat,” and he was “swaying while standing,” and “staggering when walking.”
His motor skills continued to decline, and his “speech became thicker,” “more slurred,” and “became sluggish and uncoordinated as time went on,” the suit states.
An hour after he was put in his holding cell, two deputies noticed he was slumped over and had trouble remaining conscious and called a nurse. The nurse evaluated Espinosa and noted that he was displaying signs of confusion and that his pupils were “sluggish and non-reactive,” according to the suit.
Hours into his detainment, detention officers noticed his condition worsen. One jail deputy finally gave him a “courtesy ride” to a local hospital at 2 a.m. on July 22 because of “unstable health conditions.”
After he arrived at the hospital, doctors reported that he suffered a cerebral stroke, and he was rushed to another facility for more intensive care.
The complaint alleges that the deputy who drove Espinosa to the hospital lied to hospital staff and claimed that Espinosa was “found in a parking lot in his car,” and “the police did not feel that he looked right and was having trouble speaking when they tried to talk to him.”
The complaint states that Espinosa is “now blind and suffers from other impairments of the mind and body,” and the “Defendants’ deliberate indifference” to his “serious medical needs directly caused or contributed to cause Paul’s blindness and other sequelae from his stroke due to one or more of the Defendants’ intentional denial or delay in allowing Paul Espinosa to access proper emergency medical care.”
The suit seeks punitive damages for medical negligence and deliberate indifference to Espinosa’s medical needs.