Sheriff defends forcing woman to give birth on floor of filthy cell
According to the sheriff of the Macomb Country jail, his employees did nothing wrong when they forced a pregnant woman, who was arrested for driving with an expired license, to give birth in a dirty jail cell.
Jessica Preston of Detroit went into labor while in custody. According to her, she was told she was lying when she reported labor pains.
Despite asking to be taken to the hospital repeatedly, her jailers refused.
“I was called a liar and told to knock my crap off or they could put another charge on me,” Preston said. “I should have gone (to the hospital) first thing in the morning, but when I come to you bleeding, 8 months pregnant, you go to the hospital.”
CBS got video footage that shows the woman writhing in agony on the floor of a filthy jail cell as staffers helped to deliver her son, Elijah, right there.
— Pro-Trump sheriff blames inmates for dying at his jail —
It has been nine months since the birth, and the staff of the jail are coming under heavy scrutiny. Sheriff Tony Wickersham is now defending his employees and claiming that they acted appropriately.
“I’m 100 percent that our people did what they need to do,” Wickersham said. “At some point, she said she had to go to the hospital, the baby came before that happened. In these situations, we really don’t know when that baby is going to come.”
Wickersham says that there was a plan to take Preston to the hospital to have her baby.
“That’s always our plan, you know, is to make that happen. But in this situation she was brought down, our medical staff was attending, and when they went back in the baby started to come. Safe delivery, baby was healthy.”
After giving birth to her son, Preston was returned to jail to serve her last five days. This is the same jail that is under scrutiny after a woman who could not pay a $500 fine died while in custody.
