Opinion ID: 854151
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Evidence of Jail Standards

Text: Indiana Jail Standard 210 IAC 3-1-7(f) requires the audio-video monitoring of intoxicated pretrial detainees like Sowles. The jail did not have this equipment. On November 14, 1989, the trial court entered a partial summary judgment that was not appealed by Sauders. Sauders, 664 N.E.2d at 770-71. Paragraphs fifteen and sixteen of the 1989 judgment held that the County did not owe Sauders a duty to purchase monitoring equipment, and that consequently the County was immune from liability for policy-oriented decisions with respect to whether to allocate funds to purchase the equipment. [5] Later, after an appeal dealing with other issues, [6] the court granted the County's motion in limine based on the 1989 judgment. The order prohibited evidence on all issues resolved by the parties' summary judgment order, including, specifically, the purchase or installation of monitoring equipment by the County. Despite these pretrial rulings, Sauders contends that the trial court erred in refusing to permit her to introduce evidence regarding Indiana Jail Standard 210 IAC 3-1-7(f) in order to rehabilitate her expert witness. At trial, Sauders' expert testified that in the absence of audio-video monitoring equipment, jailers should check detainees like Sowles every fifteen minutes. On cross-examination, when asked whether the Indiana Jail Standards required checks of intoxicated prisoners every fifteen minutes, the expert responded, No. Sauders objected and requested that she be allowed relief from the motion in limine in order to show that the Indiana Jail Standards required audio-video monitoring, and for that reason did not prescribe more frequent visits. After lengthy discussion, the court concluded that Sauders could establish the context of her expert's conclusion that fifteen minute checks were desirable under the circumstances, by pointing out that one such circumstance was the absence of audio-video monitoring equipment. [7] Sauders agreed that the court's solution was fair but then did not raise the subject with her expert on redirect. Sauders seems correct that it was appropriate to relax the motion in limine to allow her to introduce into evidence the Indiana Jail Standards' requirement of audio-video monitoring equipment. The County opened the door to references to the Standards' provision on monitoring equipment by relying on the absence of a fifteen minute requirement to challenge the credibility of the conclusion of Sauders' expert witness. But Sauders both accepted the trial court's solution as fair, and then chose not to revisit the subject with the expert. Thus she effectively waived the issue for purposes of this appeal.