Video Shows Man Die in Prison While Under Surveillance

At that time, he faced a choice between paying $774 in fines stemming from a careless driving charge, or 30 days in jail.

A lawsuit says a man sent to a Detroit-area jail for a driving offense died after 16 days after suffering serious withdrawals from drug use.

A man convicted of killing his cellmate at the Macomb County Jail in 2014 is among a group of inmates suing over mental health care conditions at the facility.

Newly released surveillance footage, obtained by local TV station WDIV, has revived interest in the tragic case – and brings increased scrutiny to the issue of deaths in custody. The video, which shows graphic and upsetting images of Stojcevski’s withdrawal, is on WDIV’s Web site.

The suit claims deputies looked on via a 24-hour camera mounted in Stojcevski’s cell as he withered away for 17 days, having been denied the medications he’d been prescribed (and was taking prior to his incarceration) to manage his drug withdrawal.

It also claims both brothers Constitutional right to equal protection and against cruel and unusual punishment were violated by the defendants, and the defendants committed gross negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Stojcevski’s family is now suing the county, several named officials, and health contractor Correct Care Solutions for what they said was “reckless indifference” with regard to Stojcevski’s treatment.

The lawsuit seeks damages in 11 forms, including punitive, pain and suffering, and medical, funeral and burial expenses, among others.

He declined further comment. County Corporation Counsel John Schapka told the newspaper that “knowing the facts and circumstances of the case, I’m confident the county will prevail”.

The lawsuit alleges that jail officials and medical staff knew from the start that Stojcevski was on medications for pain and addiction.

They level a variety of charges, accusing one corrections officer of threatening, mocking and “tormenting” mentally ill inmates by threatening to tamper with food, and turning on speakers to “repeatedly tell them he is the one stealing their thoughts”.

The slow, “excruciating” death was caught on jail video cameras over a period of weeks, according to the lawsuit.

But mostly he was seen twitching and convulsing.

On June 17, Stojcevski was moved to the high-observation mental health unit.

The two brothers entered the jail the same day, June 11, 2014.

“Defendants watched David as his mental and medical health deteriorated so dramatically during the final 10 days of his life in defendants jail that David lost at least 50 pounds of his 195-pound weight during the 16 days of his incarceration, a weight loss that defendants knew or should have known was compromising Davids ability to survive, ” the lawsuit says. For the last two days before his death, he lay listless on a thin mattress on the floor of the cell, then rolled onto the cement floor itself. He was rushed to the hospital, where he died 35 minutes later.

An autopsy found that the causes of his death were acute withdrawal, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance and seizures or “seizure-like activity”.

“It’s unconscionable that they let this human being suffer like this”, addiction expert Diane Rockwell told WDIV, describing Stojcevski’s last moments, as he crawled under the cell bed and heaved his last breaths, as being “like an animal [that’s] crawling underneath something to die”.

“Vladimir suffered physical and mental injury, great indignity, embarrassment and ridicule within the Macomb County Jail from inmates as well as defendants employees and agents, ” the lawsuit says.

If Stojcevski had been able to pay a $772 fine on his ticket, he would not have been jailed at all.