Former inmate: Pre-Trial denied him medicine

Prison officials will be looking at how Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility distributes medicines to inmates, after a Wasilla man jailed for 12 days said he was denied crucial medicines.

Jamie Jordan, 35, has a debilitating medical condition and says officials there did not give him his medicines even though his doctor faxed authorization to the facility.

Jordan was taken to jail Oct. 11, after police responded to a report from his neighbor that people "were yelling and throwing stuff out of the apartment," according to police dispatch records.

Wasilla Police officer Kristi Witherspoon and four other Wasilla police officers responded at about 11:50 p.m., and found Jordan, his wife, Christine, and his 6-year-old son in the apartment. The noise came from the Jordans shifting furniture around in order to locate an item that was lost, the Jordans said they explained to the officer.

What happened that night, according to Jordan and his family, was a troubling show of police force that resulted in his being jailed and crucial prescription medicine being taken out of the home. Palmer Assistant Public Defender George Davenport said it looks like "police created a situation where nothing was initially wrong."

According to the police reports, no domestic complaints were taken. Yet, Jordan became upset at some point in the interview and police charged him with resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer. They used pepper spray to subdue him.

Police reports acknowledged no one was drinking, and that the people inside the home were OK. Jordan had apparently yelled earlier when trying to find the lost item -- a prism that was a gift from his brother, Edward.

Jordan was arrested that night, charged with disorderly conduct, fourth-degree assault, and a felony weapons violation. A .45-caliber handgun his wife said she bought earlier that week was "seized and put into evidence," according to the police report.

The felony gun charge was dropped, but Jordan is set to face the misdemeanor charges at a Feb. 7 trial.

Jordan suffers from conditions ranging from an anxiety disorder to a joint disease that require medicine in order for him to function. He has not been able to hold a job because of his condition. His wife depends on medication to keep her from having seizures. She, too, is disabled.

Jordan and his wife say the police seized their medications that night, though no mention of this is made in the police report.

Jordan spent the next 12 days in jail, the facility confirmed, until a police report was presented to Davenport. Bail, originally set at $7,500 was reduced to $2,500, which enabled him to be released Oct. 23. The court required a third party as a condition of his release, Davenport said. His brother, Edward Jordan, arrived from Phoenix to be his third party and help Jordan understand what occurred.

While he was jailed, Jordan said he phoned his physician to get confirmation for the jail to give him medication. Edward Jordan said he explained the process to his brother.

Dr. David Chisholm's office confirmed that Jordan's medical records and prescriptions were faxed to the pre-trial facility on two occasions.

Alaska Department of Corrections spokesman Bruce Richards said Friday that he cannot discuss a prisoner's medical condition, but that he would check into what happened with Jordan.

Jordan said he became increasingly sick and uncomfortable at the jail. "It was hard to control my anxiety, hard to think straight, and I was in pain," he said. Jordan said his panic intensified the night another prisoner, John France, died at the pre-trial facility.

"[France] needed medical help, but he didn't get any medical help at all until he was already dead," he said, adding that he heard France ask guards for help.

Prison officials have stated that when it became apparent France had a medical problem, they acted as quickly as they could. The state medical examiner's office has not yet received a toxicology report on France that would indicate his exact cause of death.

Jordan said he wanted to make his complaints known because police "exercised a lot of power over our lives -- and place people in danger when they deny medical help."

Davenport said he is not sure why the medicines were removed from the home that night, and said police do not mention this anywhere in their reports.

Richards said he is confident that the handing out of medicines is being done properly at the jail. But he said he is checking into the situation.

Palmer Public Defender Greg Heath said he often hears clients are denied medication while at Mat-Su Pre-Trial. "My understanding is that there are no nurses on duty there at night. Guards should not be making medical decisions about who needs medicine and who doesn't."