Second autopsy contradicts county's findings in jail death

By Rosalio Ahumada
rahumada@modbee.com

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An autopsy report commissioned by Craig Prescott's family says the 38-year-old former sheriff's deputy died from a lack of oxygen to the brain during a struggle with jailers in April while in custody at the Stanislaus County Jail.

Prescott's family on Friday provided a copy of the autopsy report to The Bee. The independent autopsy was conducted April 15 by Dr. David Posey of Glenoaks Pathology Medical Group in Southern California.

Marilyn Prescott, Craig Prescott's mother, said she believes jail officials subdued her son in a manner that suffocated him, so they are responsible for his death.

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"He was deprived of oxygen, so he couldn't breathe," she said Friday. "It just saddens me to read this report, because now I know this was an egregious act."

The Stanislaus County coroner's office conducted its own autopsy a day after Prescott's death and released a report of its findings in early June. Pathologist Dr. Eugene Carpenter performed the autopsy under contract with the coroner's office.

Sheriff Adam Christianson has said jail officials followed departmental guidelines in trying to restrain and move Prescott. Christianson declined Friday to comment about the independent autopsy report.

"At this point, this case is going to be litigated, and it would be inappropriate for me to comment on somebody else's autopsy when I don't know who they are or their competency," Christianson said. "I absolutely stand by our deputy sheriffs."

In early October, Stanislaus County District Attorney Birgit Fladager said the jail officials were not responsible for Prescott's death. He died in a Modesto hospital two days after deputies at the jail used Tasers and pepper spray to subdue him when he acted out in their custody.

Fladager's report culminated a six-month inquiry into whether jail deputies acted criminally April 11 in subduing Prescott. She determined they did not, citing a coroner's report that said Prescott died of hypertensive heart disease and determined his death was accidental.

Posey's independent autopsy concluded a different cause of death. He noted the contradiction in his report.

"Mr. Prescott's heart disease was stable, and he did not have a 'heart attack' and cardiopulmonary arrest as a direct sequela (or consequence) of the altercation as purported by the first examiner's cause of death," Posey wrote.

Prescott died from irreversible damage to the brain caused by sudden respiratory failure during the altercation with officials at the downtown Modesto jail, Posey wrote.

He said Friday that the coroner's conclusion that Prescott's heart disease was the cause of his death doesn't add up.

Had heart disease been the underlying cause of his sudden loss of consciousness, Posey said, there would have been no pulse or respiration and the resuscitative efforts at the jail and the hospital wouldn't have been successful.

As Prescott's restraints were being removed in the safety cell, Posey said, jail officials found he was not breathing, but he had a faint pulse.

He said Prescott's heart had the reserve capacity to sustain an independent cardiac rhythm until his death at Doctors Medical Center in Modesto.

"... With a very high degree of medical certainty his heart would not have responded to resuscitation," Posey wrote in his report.

He said a person cannot go without oxygen for five minutes or more without causing severe brain damage. Prescott stopped breathing when the ventilators at the hospital were removed, because the cardiorespiratory center in the brain no longer was functioning.