Mundelein, Illinois, population 36,600:

A Mundelein woman has filed a federal lawsuit claiming police officers ignored the fact she was having a heart attack when they arrested her last year.

[...]

At 10 p.m. Dec. 7, 2004, police broke down Florek’s door and she was ordered to lie on the floor, the lawsuit states. She and her son were handcuffed while police looked for drugs, acting on a search warrant.

Florek told officers she had a cardiac condition and was experiencing chest pain. Police refused to give her two baby aspirin or call an ambulance, both of which she requested, according to the lawsuit.

[...]

By 11:30 p.m., Florek was led to a small confining cell in a police van, where she again told officers she was experiencing chest pain and that she was claustrophobic.

An ambulance was called, and when she arrived at the Mundelein Police Station about 10 minutes later, Florek was then taken to Condell Medical Center where doctors said she was having a heart attack and needed surgery, the lawsuit states.

Fortunately, she lived. After the surgery, cops charged with her possession of 2.5 grams of marijuana, or about the volume of a teaspoon of powdered sugar.

Thanks to T.J. Brown for the tip.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 11th, 2005 at 12:17 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Police Militarization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.