Three Spokane County Jail inmates have died in less than two months
Spokane County on Tuesday confirmed the death of Charles Francis Boardman, the third man since the start of May to die while awaiting trial.
County spokeswoman Jessica Hines said Boardman was found unconscious in his Spokane County Jail cell on May 31. The 37-year-old wasn’t breathing and didn’t have a pulse.
In an email, Hines wrote that “lifesaving measures were initiated,” including CPR.
“He had a pulse when he went to the hospital at approximately 3:30 p.m.,” Hines wrote. “He passed away at the hospital sometime that evening.”
According to Spokane Municipal Court documents, Boardman was arrested in downtown Spokane on May 28. He was charged with using a controlled substance in public, obstructing a police officer, resisting arrest and making false statements.
Boardman spent much of his adult life in Clayton and often worked as a drywall installer. He struggled with addiction for years, as well as homelessness.
Christina Boardman, Charles Boardman’s sister, said her family has been told “he fell and hit his head or something.” The Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for information on Boardman’s death.
Charles Boardman grew up in Alaska before moving to Clayton as a teenager, his sister said.
“He did a lot of hunting and fishing with my dad,” Christina Boardman said. “I like to just remember him as an outdoors kid.”
Boardman is the third person found lifeless in the Spokane County Jail in less than two months.
Earlier in May, 63-year-old Tracy Sabron Pruitt died of “bilateral pulmonary thromboemboli, due to right lower extremity deep vein thrombosis” according to the medical examiner’s office.
Pruitt, who spent 27 years in prison for rape and aggravated robbery, was arrested in November after new DNA evidence connected him to the 1982 killing of Archie Rutherford. He faced first-degree murder charges.
Kyle Robert McLaurine, 23, died in early June. He was charged with unlawful imprisonment and malicious mischief after an incident at the Airway Heights Walmart. The medical examiner’s office hasn’t released information on McLaurine’s cause of death.
Deaths have been common at the jail for decades, and some have had major legal and financial repercussions for the county. Since 2000, Spokane County has paid more than $4 million in settlements related to jail deaths and injuries.
The jail’s private medical provider, NaphCare, has faced major lawsuits.
A federal jury in July awarded $27 million to the family of Cindy Lou Hill, a woman who died in her cell of a ruptured intestine. The jury determined that NaphCare is responsible for $26.5 million of that amount.
Shortly after the verdict, NaphCare asked Spokane County for more money so it could hire more staff. In January, the Spokane County Commission increased the company’s nearly $8 million annual contract by $354,000, which NaphCare said it would use to hire more nurses, dentists and doctors.