The Vermont family of a 30-year-old mother who died in police custody nearly six years ago has reached a tentative agreement to settle a wrongful death lawsuit it filed against three Springfield police employees, court records show.
Lawyers for the estate of Madelyn E. Linsenmeir and the city disclosed the proposed settlement in papers filed Wednesday in US District Court in Springfield. The document didn’t specify the terms of the agreement, which is scheduled to be presented Monday to the Springfield City Council during a closed-door session, said Lisa C. deSousa, a lawyer for the city. She declined to comment further.
Linsenmeir’s death on Oct. 7, 2018, made national headlines after her family poignantly memorialized her life and struggle with opioids in an obituary that encouraged the public to treat addiction as a disease rather than “a choice or a weakness.”
Linsenmeir, whose son was 3 when she died, spent her final days struggling with a heart valve infection tied to her opioid use while she was in the custody of Springfield police and, later, the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office. She eventually became septic and died at a hospital in Springfield while in the custody of the sheriff’s office, court records show.
In 2020, Linsenmeir’s estate sued in federal court, alleging she could have survived with timely treatment if Springfield police employees and workers at the sheriff’s office had granted her access to adequate care when she complained about pain and asked for medical attention.
The complaint accuses the City of Springfield and three police employees of ignoring Linsenmeir’s medical needs after she was arrested on Sept. 29, 2018.
Linsenmeir was arrested in Springfield as she attempted to purchase heroin. She was charged with giving a false name and being a fugitive from New Hampshire, where she was on probation for a drug-related offense, court records show.
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The estate is also suing the sheriff’s office for an alleged violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which applies to people with drug addiction like Linsenmeir, her estate said in court papers. The lawsuit accuses the three Springfield police employees and two workers at the sheriff’s office of wrongful death.
The City of Springfield and the sheriff’s office have denied the allegations. Last month, their lawyers pressed US District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni to rule in their favor and close the case.
Mastroianni has yet to rule on those requests, but lawyers for the city and Linsenmeir’s estate requested that the litigation against Springfield and three police employees be put on hold while the settlement agreement is finalized.
The proposed settlement involving the City of Springfield doesn’t cover the claims brought by Linsenmeir’s estate against the sheriff’s office and two of its workers, according to the court records. If the case against the sheriff’s office goes to trial, the proceeding is scheduled to begin on May 20.
A sheriff’s office spokesperson declined to comment.
Linsenmeir’s estate is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts.
Following Linsenmeir’s arrest, security cameras in a Springfield police booking area captured her saying she might need to go to the hospital and complaining about her chest and right knee.
“I have a really, really, really bad chest, like I don’t know what happened to it, it feels like it’s caving in, I can’t even breathe. And my knees and my feet,” Linsenmeir said in the video, according to court records.
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Linsenmeir later returned to the booking area, where she telephoned her mother in Vermont and told her she was sick and had been denied medical care, the lawsuit said.
On Sept. 30, 2018, a day after her arrest in Springfield, Linsenmeir was transferred to the Hampden sheriff’s office and brought to the Western Massachusetts Regional Women’s Correctional Center in Chicopee, court records show. There, her estate says, she continued to complain about knee and chest pain, but didn’t receive treatment. Her estate said staff at the correctional center implemented a detoxification plan for Linsenmeir, which included giving her a prescription medication for alcohol withdrawal, ibuprofen, ice, and a vitamin, and screened her for tuberculosis and sexually transmitted diseases.
On Oct. 4, 2018, medical staff at the facility found her unresponsive in her cell and summoned an ambulance, which took her to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, the lawsuit said. At the hospital, Linsenmeir was diagnosed with the heart valve infection and other ailments and began receiving antibiotics, but the complaint said “it was too late for Madelyn’s infections to be successfully treated” and she died three days later.
Laura Crimaldi can be reached at laura.crimaldi@globe.com. Follow her @lauracrimaldi.