10 days of hell in Sacramento jail: Lawsuit says inmate died after pleas for help ignored

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Norman Fisher Jr. had been in the Sacramento County Main Jail for three months when he became ill last May, vomiting nonstop and unable to eat or drink. “He could barely sit up in his bed, and when he did so, he would vomit,” court papers say. Even after his cellmate, Jacob Smith, alerted jail custody staff that Fisher needed help the pleas were ignored, with one staffer telling Smith that if Fisher needed help he would have to fill out a form himself and ask for it, court papers say. Over the course of 10 days, as Fisher’s condition deteriorated to the point that he could...