After Madelyn Linsenmeir died last month, her family wrote an obituary that candidly described the Vermont mother's 14-year struggle with opioid addiction.
Her obituary went viral. Now her family is seeking answers from Massachusetts authorities about how she died after a week in police custody.
More: Madelyn Ellen Linsenmeir's sister: 'Her disease brought her to very dark places'
Her family, together with the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and advocacy group Prisoners' Legal Services, filed a lawsuit Tuesday, Nov. 27, against the Springfield Police Department and City of Springfield, seeking records detailing what happened in the days between her arrest and her death.
Springfield Police arrested Linsenmeir on a warrant on Sept. 29, according to the department's logs.
The day before her arrest, she told her family she was sick.
“I need to go to the hospital I am dying I weigh 90 pounds mom I need you," she texted her mother, according to a message included in the court papers.
More: What happens when a police chief's words go viral
After police arrested her, she was allowed to call her mother, said ACLU of Massachusetts spokeswoman Kate Lagreca, and told her mother she was not getting medical help.
Linsenmeir was transferred to custody of the Hampden County Sheriff's Department. On Oct. 4, she was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit.
She died on Oct. 7.
Her obituary, written by her sister Kate O'Neill, drew national attention, as did a response from Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo.
"This is whom Maddie was, and so I think an obituary should represent who someone is," O'Neill said after her words had gone viral. "But it also felt like a good way to talk about both the positive and negative things she's experienced being part of this system -- and it really is a system of institutions that are failing people who are addicted."
Springfield Police declined to answer specific questions about the allegations raised in the lawsuit Tuesday.
"The matter’s under investigation, but we cannot comment specifically on the lawsuit at this time," said Ryan Walsh, a spokesman for the department.
Springfield's chief lawyer, Edward Pikula, did not return a call for comment Tuesday afternoon.
Contact Jess Aloe at 802-660-1874 or jaloe@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @jess_aloe
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