Jury awards $975K to woman with mental illness who gave birth alone in jail cell

A federal jury awarded a nearly $1 million judgment to a woman with severe mental illness who was experiencing a psychotic episode when she gave birth alone in a King County Jail cell.

The jury found the jail and several of its employees liable of medical malpractice and multiple civil rights violations.

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Imka Pope was 27 when she gave birth alone, terrified and in terrible pain in November 1997 after being arrested while sleeping at a bus stop. She told two correctional officers that she was in labor and needed help, but no one came to her aid until a guard heard the baby crying.