Commission overturns ruling

GREAT FALLS – Law enforcement officers in two north-central Montana counties showed “discriminatory indifference” toward an 18-year-old inmate who died of acute alcohol withdrawal by failing to fill two prescriptions and administer the drugs meant to alleviate his symptoms, the Montana Human Rights Commission found.

The commission’s 4-1 decision overturned a ruling by hearing officer Terry Spear, who said the officers in Hill and Blaine counties did not discriminate against A.J. Longsoldier Jr. on the basis of his race or the disability of alcoholism, the Great Falls Tribune reported Wednesday.

The commission ruled Longsoldier was discriminated on based on his alcoholism, which both the hearings officer and commissioners determined was a disability.

The commission’s remand order, filed last week, returns the case to Spear to determine the measures needed to rectify the harm caused by the unlawful discrimination against Longsoldier, who died at a Havre hospital in November 2009.

Longsoldier returned home from college in November 2009 for his grandfather’s funeral when he was arrested on a Blaine County warrant for contempt of court. Longsoldier was booked into the jail in Havre at 3:30 a.m. on Nov. 19, 2009.

The next day, jail personnel noticed Longsoldier was suffering from alcohol withdrawal, hallucinating and was unable to sleep.

He was taken to a hospital a few blocks from the jail. A doctor prescribed medications, and ordered the debuty to give Longsoldier the medications.

The prescriptions were never filled.