Court: Ohio prison nurse can be sued in death

CINCINNATI (AP) — A federal appeals court has ruled that an Ohio prison nurse is not immune from being sued over an inmate’s 2009 death following a violent seizure from alcohol withdrawal.

Nurse Jennifer McCune had sought immunity as a government employee in the death of Michael Reid at the Richland County jail in Mansfield in northern Ohio.

A lower court denied that request in July 2011, and a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld that decision Tuesday.

In its ruling, the panel wrote that a reasonable jury could conclude that McCune “acted with a perverse disregard” in Reid’s “tragic” death.

McCune’s phone number was not listed, and her attorney did not immediately return a call for comment today.