Freed inmate dies after 3 days in lobby

[rawstory]

Freed inmate dies after three days in lobby

From the AP: "A diabetic amputee who was released from a Los Angeles County jail languished for three days on a bench in the busy jailhouse lobby before he was noticed by deputies and rushed to a hospital, where he later died.

Gustavo Ortega, 50, died of coronary artery disease, with diabetes, chronic renal failure and hypertension as contributing factors, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

<snip>

The sheriff's department said it followed procedures in releasing Ortega in April, but officials said he seemed to have slipped through the cracks in a system that processes up to 800 inmates a day.

Brief, sans registration, with non registration link: http://bluelemur.com/index.html#6214

Registration link (AZ central): http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0621jaillobby21.html

[mbperrin]

1. Pretty damn big

cracks, eh?

'course there's so many amputees sittin' around, Lord knows it's hard to notice just one in the crowd.

wooooooooooo....

[Mnemosyne]

2. terribly sad..

but I'm amazed he survived jail in this country.

[hightime]

3. Ortega's family scoured downtown Los Angeles for two days

but they didn't see him in the lobby?

[mbperrin]

4. Gosh, when the cops on duty

can't see him, how could they? Been to downtown LA? Like to Scour it? Whatever that would be...

[Sequoia]

5. Hard to believe

no one noticed him. What lies they tell us. Poor fellow, I'm so sorry.