{"id":1316460,"date":"2019-11-05T13:35:53","date_gmt":"2019-11-05T20:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=990523"},"modified":"2019-11-05T13:35:53","modified_gmt":"2019-11-05T20:35:53","slug":"pitkin-county-sheriff-cord-used-in-jail-suicide-shouldnt-have-been-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/pitkin-county-sheriff-cord-used-in-jail-suicide-shouldnt-have-been-there\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitkin County Sheriff: Cord used in jail suicide \u2018shouldn\u2019t have been there\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Pitkin
Pitkin County Jail is in Aspen. <\/strong>
Aspen Times file photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The extension cord used by a Woody Creek woman to hang herself in the Pitkin County Jail was left over from a previous inmate and should not have been in her cell, Sheriff Joe DiSalvo said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did something wrong,\u201d DiSalvo said. \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with saying that? Let the chips fall where they may. This cord shouldn\u2019t have been there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got no defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jillian White, 64, was found dead in her cell Sunday evening. White, who\u2019d been arrested multiple times for theft, drunken driving and other charges over the past decade, had been found incompetent to stand trial and was awaiting an appointment at the state psychiatric hospital in Pueblo or a private facility to restore her to competency.<\/p>\n

The previous occupant of White\u2019s cell needed oxygen, and a short extension cord was used to plug the oxygenator into an outlet in the cell, DiSalvo said. When the inmate moved out of the cell, the short extension cord remained and White moved in, he said. The sheriff said he thought a television might have been plugged into the extension cord.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should not have an unsecured cord in the jail,\u201d DiSalvo said. \u201cI guess somebody\u2019s gotta start saying that.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he said he didn\u2019t think the fact that the cord was left out would lead to punitive measures for any jail deputies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure it rises to the level of discipline,\u201d DiSalvo said. \u201cBut we\u2019re talking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two deputies who were placed on administrative leave with pay after White was found were allowed back to work Tuesday morning, said Alex Burchetta, chief deputy of operations. DiSalvo said their return to work indicates their mental health is good and that \u201cthere\u2019s no reason to put them on punitive leave at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation have been called in to offer guidance in the Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s investigation into White\u2019s death, DiSalvo said. They will act as a backstop and offer suggestions, he said.<\/p>\n

White was last seen by deputies making a phone call between 15 and 30 minutes before she was found dead in her cell, DiSalvo said Monday. On Tuesday, he said her final call was to her mother.<\/p>\n

Burchetta said White had not displayed any suicidal behavior prior to her body being found, and was not on suicide watch.<\/p>\n

White\u2019s lawyer filed a motion Friday that said she\u2019d found a private facility that could restore White\u2019s competency and allow her current legal cases to proceed, prosecutor Don Nottingham said Monday.<\/p>\n

Attempts to reach White\u2019s lawyer, Jennifer Longtin of Denver, on Monday and Tuesday have not been successful.<\/p>\n

DiSalvo said he expects White\u2019s death to be the subject of a civil lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if we\u2019re going to get sued, but my assumption would be yes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

jauslander@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pitkin County Jail is in Aspen. Aspen Times file photo The extension cord used by a Woody Creek woman to hang herself in the Pitkin County Jail was left over from a previous inmate and should not have been in her cell, Sheriff Joe DiSalvo said Tuesday. \u201cWe did something wrong,\u201d DiSalvo said. \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1316460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 14:37:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1316460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1316460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1316460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1316460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}