Monday, January 12, 2009 Documents surface in Lenawee County inmate death case George Hunter and Paul Egan / The Detroit News

DETROIT -- Recently uncovered documents show Lenawee County Sheriff's officials lied during depositions last year when they claimed they did not know a female inmate was diabetic and in need of insulin before she died in her cell, attorneys for the family claim in a court filing.

The inmate, Yolanda Flores, 45, was found dead in her Lenawee County Jail cell the morning of Dec. 13, 2006, two days after her arrest on accusations of writing bad checks. Relatives later filed a lawsuit against the county, former Sheriff Lawrence Richardson Jr., and six jail guards, claiming the guards were deliberately indifferent to Flores' medical needs and that there was a conspiracy to cover up what they knew about the incident.

Richardson, the county and three of the guards later were dismissed from the lawsuit because there wasn't enough evidence to support the claims. But now, attorneys for Flores' family are asking that the county, Richardson and the three officers be reinstated to the lawsuit, because they claim the new documents, which were filed in court Friday, show the officers lied under oath and that Richardson and other county officials were aware that medical care policies weren't being carried out.

Attorneys could not comment Sunday because of a gag order.

At least one officer claimed during a deposition last year that he had never been questioned about Flores' death -- but the recently found documents, which are transcripts of a 2007 Internal Affairs investigation into Flores' death, show the guard not only was questioned about the incident but was punished for not acting properly. ...

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