NEWS

March 18 , 2008
Officers fired after death of prisoner

Two correctional officers at the Iowa State Penitentiary were fired after they lied about how often they checked on an inmate who was dead for about an hour before his body was discovered in a prison mental health unit, state records show.

David Joseph Rodamaker, 31, died of a heart inflammation on Dec. 30, an autopsy showed. He was confined in the Fort Madison prison's Clinical Care Unit for inmates with mental illness.
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Rodamaker was among 14 inmates in an observation area who were to be checked every 30 minutes. Several inmates under suicide watch were to be monitored every 15 minutes.

Correctional officer Justin Woolever, 32, of Fort Madison was fired after Rodamaker's death, as was a second officer who was not identified in state records. Administrative Law Judge Beth Scheetz ruled March 6 that Woolever was ineligible for unemployment pay because he was discharged for misconduct.

Prison investigators alleged that neither Wool-ever nor the other officer completed all their rounds, even though their initials appeared on a log sheet. Prison investigators used videotapes to review what had happened in the unit, records show. Woolever was suspended Jan. 6 and dismissed nine days later.

Woolever "wrote on the log sheet the inmate's activity during the rounds even though" he "could not have known in what activity the inmate was engaging," Scheetz said.

Woolever, who was hired in February 1999, did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

Fred Scaletta, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Corrections, declined to make public the name of the second correctional officer. He said the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation was not asked to investigate Rodamaker's death because prison officials didn't believe it was necessary.

Rodamaker was serving a 10-year prison sentence for a second-degree robbery in Hardin County. He went to prison Dec. 15, 1999.

The unit where Rodamaker died was the focus of attention after four mentally ill inmates committed suicide between February 2003 and November 2004. A consultant for the National Institute of Corrections criticized Iowa prison officials at the time and called for "urgent and decisive" steps to address problems.

Jean Basinger of Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants, a prisoner advocacy group, said last week she is troubled about the circumstances surrounding Rodamaker's death.

"This is the same kind of thing that was going on before," Basinger, of Des Moines, said. "Certainly, if they are not doing their rounds, it is a real concern."

Iowa Citizens' Aide/Ombuds-man William Angrick said Monday his staff knows the circumstances of Rodamaker's death and will conduct a review, which is routine in prison deaths.

Scaletta said prison officials have made no excuses for the two fired officers. But medical professionals employed by the prison system believe that even if the officers had made their rounds, Rodamaker's death was not preventable, he said.

"Anytime something like this happens, we always take a look at what is going on and what didn't work and what can work better," Scaletta said. "The bottom line is, the policies or responsibilities were not followed. However, we have increased some training; we have done some things ... that put more responsibilities not only on the line staff, but on the supervisory staff, to ensure they are making rounds on a more frequent basis."

Dr. Frances Johnson, director of the University of Iowa's cardiomyopathy treatment program, said Monday she has seen more cases than usual this winter of the heart inflammation, acute myocarditis, that killed Rodamaker. It is believed the condition is sometimes related to viral infections, she said.

"Most of the time when people develop acute myocarditis, they have some sort of symptoms, like shortness of breath or chest discomfort," Johnson said.

"But occasionally people will have sudden cardiac death from an abnormal heart rhythm related to the inflammation in the heart."

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