Nurse accused inmate of faking illness days before his death, report says

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    CLAYTON, MO (KMOV ) — The family of a man who died in custody at the St. Louis County Jail last year wants answers after a new report shows a nurse accused him of faking his illness just days before his death. They also said evidence was destroyed concerning their son’s death.

Tashonda Troupe’s son Lamar Catchings was 20-years-old at the time of his death. The report reveals that Catchings complained about not feeling well in the weeks leading up to his death on March 1, 2019.

Troupe said she could barely stand after reading the details leading up to her son’s death.

“Now I’m reliving it all over again,” said Troupe.

The details were released earlier this month by a St. Louis County internal report on jail deaths that happened at the jail last year.

“This report is a year later, we asked for this a long time ago,” she said.

On February 22 while he was headed to a court hearing, Catchings told an officer he was feeling dizzy and ill. In court video News 4 obtained, it shows Catchings was too ill to stand, so he had to be rolled into court.

A few weeks prior to the video, Catchings appears healthier, able to walk and stand on his own.

Then on the 26th of February, while he was in his jail cell, the report said he had a vomiting episode. A guard called the nurse who looked at Catchings.

When asked if he should be taken to the infirmary, the nurse replied he thought Catchings was “[expletive] faking it.”

An autopsy found that Catchings had an undiagnosed form of cancer.

“He should never be a nurse, period,” Troupe said.

Troupes’s attorney doesn’t doubt there’s more to this story.

“There was handwritten notes by Lamar, which we can assume is a sick call or a complaint about his health, they said it was a close record. Today they’re telling us this doesn’t exist so this is a huge concern because this has come up in the internal affairs report that there was actually a sick call submitted and for whatever reason the sick call is missing and we’d like to find it,” said attorney Mark Perdoli.

St. Louis County said they’ve provided these reports for transparency.

After the deaths, County Executive Sam Page appointed a justice service advisory board to oversee the justice center. They said emergency transfers from the Justice Center to local hospitals have increased in the past year.

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