After spraining her ankle Anna Brown, a homeless patient, was left in the hospital lobby trapped in a wheelchair because pain in her legs prevented her from walking. Instead of providing a proper examination she was told to leave. and when she was unable to do so police that were already on the hospital campus arrested her for trespassing.
Still unable to walk she was dragged from the police car by her arms and was dumped on the concrete floor in a cell. When officers checked on her fifteen minutes later she was dead from blood clots obstructing her lungs. Police told the coroner they suspected drugs. The coroner found no drugs in her system at all.
A police officer arrested Brown for trespassing. He wheeled her out in handcuffs after a doctor said she was healthy enough to be locked up.
Brown was 29. A mother who had lost custody of two children. Homeless. On Medicaid. And, an autopsy later revealed, dying from blood clots that started in her legs, then lodged in her lungs.
She told officers she couldn't get out of the police car, so they dragged her by her arms into the station. They left her lying on the concrete floor of a jail cell, moaning and struggling to breathe. Just 15 minutes later, a jail worker found her cold to the touch.