D.A. to Investigate Miscarriage Claim by Ex-Jail Inmate

The Orange County district attorney’s office is investigating the case of a former Buena Park woman who says she had a miscarriage at least partly because of inadequate medical treatment at the Orange County Jail.

Michele Rene Holtan, 29, last week filed a federal lawsuit against Orange County, Sheriff-Coroner Brad Gates and the City of Buena Park. She asserts that she was forced to stand for 15 hours in a holding cell without medical attention, despite a doctor’s order after her arrest on suspicion of drug possession that she stay off her feet and receive medical monitoring.

First Involving a Fetus

The district attorney’s office has been under orders from the Board of Supervisors since May, 1985, to investigate all deaths involving the Orange County Jail. But this is the first time that that order has been extended to an unborn fetus, Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas M. Goethals said.

“We’ve discussed it here in our office and decided that if she did have a miscarriage, then we should investigate this one like we would any other jail death,” Goethals said.

But Goethals, who will be in charge of the investigation, already has hit an unexpected snag. The woman’s lawyer, Harry Lerner, sent a letter to the district attorney’s office Thursday saying he would refuse to let his client cooperate with an investigation.

Lerner, who is associated with the American Civil Liberties Union, accused prosecutors of using such investigations to shield the county from civil liability.

Lerner instead asked that the investigation be turned over to either the state attorney general or the U.S. Justice Department. The ACLU, however, was critical of the Justice Department a few years ago when it cleared Gates of any wrongdoing after more than 50 complaints from inmates about physical abuse from jail deputies.

Holtan and her boyfriend, John D. Eich, were arrested one year ago today by police during a drug raid at their Buena Park home. Holtan says police treated her roughly, even though she was almost five months pregnant. Then, she says, she was denied immediate medical treatment after she began bleeding and complaining about stomach pains.

She says that several hours after her arrest, she finally was sent from the Orange County Jail to Western Medical Center and that a doctor there described the medical care that she needed to a Buena Park police officer.

She says the doctor assumed that she would be going to the jail’s medical ward. But instead, she was sent to a holding area on the booking floor, where she says she remained for about 15 hours. When she finally was admitted to the ward, she asserts, she did not receive adequate treatment and was sent to UCI Medical Center only after fellow inmates began screaming at nurses to help her. Her lawsuit states that she was told at the hospital that she had miscarried.

Holtan said she was never charged in connection with the drug raid.

Buena Park Police Department spokesman Terry Branum said after the lawsuit was filed Tuesday that he is looking into Holtan’s claim. Lt. Richard J. Olson of the Sheriff’s Department referred calls to the county counsel’s office.

Prosecutor Goethals said Thursday that while he is bothered by Lerner’s attitude, he intends to vigorously investigate the incident anyway.

“If we find criminal negligence, or negligence of any kind, we will say so, despite what Mr. Lerner says,” Goethals declared.