The family of 27-year-old Ashley Jo Raisbeck filed a lawsuit against the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office nearly two years after the woman died in their custody.

Jaime Raisbeck, Ashley’s mother, stood outside of the Alfred A. Arraj Courthouse Wednesday morning, a line of family holding memoriam signs behind her.

“I don’t want another parent in my situation,” Raisbeck said. “I want to make a change in the laws on how inmates are being treated with their medical care.”

On Tuesday the family’s attorney — Anita Springsteen — filed a 74-page wrongful death lawsuit in federal court, naming more than 20 entities as defendants. Those defendants include the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, the First Judicial District Attorney, multiple nurses and VitalCore Health Strategies.

VitalCore provides healthcare services for the Jefferson County jail.

Ultimately, the complaint claims that the jail’s medical team poisoned Raisbeck with an antibiotic she was allergic to — one she had declined before due to the dangers and was flagged on her charts.

“How much more do you need?” Jaime Raisbeck said of the medical notifications.

THE INCIDENT

Raisbeck was arrested by the Wheat Ridge Police Department on suspicion of false reporting on Dec. 13, 2023. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a 28-day stint in the Jefferson County jail the next day, according to a previous release from the sheriff’s office.

Following her brother’s murder in 2020, Raisbeck had begun to use “drugs and alcohol to numb the pain of her broken soul,” according to the complaint.

She was in possession of fentanyl and methamphetamine at the time of her arrest and admitted to using them before she was detained, according to the First Judicial District Attorney Office’s Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) investigation in 2024.

She was also in and out of the jail for petty offenses in February, March, June and July of that year.

Raisbeck was placed in the detox unit and, three days later, was found “disoriented,” according to the sheriff’s office. She was then taken to the medical unit, where she later collapsed but was breathing. 

Responders administered Narcan and CPR, but the woman died.

THE LAWSUIT

When Raisbeck was in the jail in February 2023, she signed a “Refusal to Submit to Treatment or Procedure” form rejecting the antibiotic Keflex after it was administered to her.

Raisbeck had a known allergy to penicillin. Keflex does not contain penicillin, but can create similar allergic reactions, according to the National Institutes of Health.

When the woman was booked in July, the medical staff gave her an antibiotic ointment because she was listed as having a penicillin allergy on her medical chart.

In December, just days before her death, Raisbeck was issued 1,000 mg of antibiotic Keflex by mouth, twice daily, according to the complaint.

The Food and Drug Administration recommends dosages of 250 mg every six hours, or 500 mg every 12 hours, meaning Raisbeck received double the recommended dosage.

“It’s ironic,” Springsteen said. “There are so many inmates who aren’t able to get their prescriptions, but in this case, there’s a question about whether she even needed it. There’s no notation of why she was prescribed this medication.”

Nurses also noticed dehydration, nausea and other symptoms in the days leading up to her death. When found with muscle cramps, a nurse allegedly told her to drink water, despite Raisbeck not being able to hold down water for days, according to the complaint.

“By administering a dangerous medication and failing to monitor resulting deterioration, defendants exposed Ms. Raisbeck to foreseeable risk of gastrointestinal crisis, dehydration and shock. Courts recognize such conduct as deliberate indifference,” according to the lawsuit.

The autopsy report found that Raisbeck had methamphetamine and norfentanyl in her system at the time of death. The cause of death was ruled “complications of intussusception,” or a bowel obstruction. The death was classified as being from natural causes.

Springsteen also claimed that a nurse checked on Raisbeck an hour before she was taken to the medical unit. The nurse could not find a pulse or blood pressure and noted that she had to get Raisbeck IV fluids due to dehydration.

The nurse then left the woman for over an hour to finish her rounds, according to Springsteen. When she returned, that is when Raisbeck was found “disoriented.”

“Even a layperson knows that if you don’t have a blood pressure or pulse, that is a call for 911. There was even a deputy with her that day. That deputy should have known,” Springsteen said.

The lawsuit also included the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office for releasing Raisbeck’s medical history, including illegal drug use, to the public in 2024 following the CIRT’s investigation into the death.

“A STATEWIDE PROBLEM”

This case is just the tip of the iceberg regarding incidents in jails around the state, Springsteen said.

“It is a call to action. It is a call for the Department of Justice to investigate what is actually going on in the jails in this state,” she said.

There have been six recorded deaths at Jefferson County jail since 2023, including Raisbeck.

There were also six deaths in the Denver County jail this year, topping the five in 2024.

“We’re going to stand as a united front,” Jaime Raisbeck said of other family members of those who died in Colorado jails. “We’re going to demand answers and accountability.”

Both the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and VitalCore did not respond to requests for comment.