Boston officers found not liable in case of man who overdosed in their custody

Shayne Stilphen was brought to the BPD District 4 station in July 2019 for breaking into a car.

A jury found four Boston officers not liable on Monday for a 28-year-old man’s overdose death in police custody, according to court records.

The complaint blamed officers Ismael Almeida, Paul Michael Bertocchi, Catia Freire, and Brian Picarello for the death of Shayne Stilphen, who was brought into police custody at the BPD District 4 station on July 14, 2019, for breaking into a car. The station is near the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, the epicenter of Boston’s opioid crisis.

“Shayne had displayed obvious signs of urgent medical distress for hours, and any reasonable person would have understood that he required immediate medical attention,” the complaint said. “But the officers who could have saved Shayne’s life failed to obtain a medical evaluation, seek outside medical treatment, or provide him with medical care themselves, causing his death.”

Randall Maas, a lawyer representing the officers, said the officers “did everything they could to save [Stilphen’s] life,” when describing how they used Narcan, performed CPR, and called EMS, The Boston Globe reported.

The lawsuit, filed by Stilphen’s mother, Lynnel Cox, on behalf of his estate, was represented by the ACLU of Massachusetts and Goodwin Procter LLP.

“Anyone who hears Shayne’s story will understand that Massachusetts needs to treat the overdose epidemic for what it is: a public health crisis that requires public health solutions, not policing,” Jessie Rossman, legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, said in a statement to Boston.com.

The plaintiffs argued the defendants denied Stilphen his constitutional right to medical care and violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by unlawfully discriminating against him on the basis of his opioid use disorder.

Stilphen had previously survived opioid overdoses by regularly carrying Narcan, but this incident was different.

During booking, “despite Shayne’s repeated inability to stand on his own, BPD officers failed to seek a medical evaluation, obtain outside medical treatment, or provide medical care themselves,” the complaint said.

Video camera footage showed Stilphen taking drugs for roughly two hours in his cell, without any intervention from law enforcement, the lawsuit said.

Officers walked by Stilphen’s cell seven times over the course of an hour, until Officer Sean Doolan, who described Stilphen in the complaint as “look[ing] as if it would be of extreme discomfort for most individuals,” administered Narcan.

But it was too late. Stilphen died from the overdose.

An artist, barber, cook, and sports enthusiast, Stilphen, born in Quincy, “had a huge heart and was sensitive and giving,” the lawsuit said.

Cox reportedly spoke with Stilphen often about his own substance use disorder, which inspired her to start “Hand Delivered Hope,” an educational outreach program.

“It was Shayne’s open, hard-core, truthful conversations with his mother about life on the streets for someone with substance use disorder that gave Lynnel the tools she needed to teach people — those on the streets, as well as those living comfortable lives — about hope, and how it can heal,” the organization said in a Facebook post. “He taught his mother the facts about addiction treatment, jail, hospital care, and stigma. It is an invaluable education that cannot be found in textbooks.”

During the trial testimony, Cox said she “never lost hope” for her son.

“Everyone held in police custody is somebody’s child,” she said following the verdict. “Nobody deserves to die like Shayne did, and no family deserves to lose their loved one like we did.”