Investigation underway into the death of a Lewis County inmate, Sheriff’s office confirms
An investigation is underway after a Lewis County jail inmate died after he was taken from the jail to a hospital in Centralia over Labor Day Weekend.
Lewis County 911 dispatch records obtained by McClatchy sketch a general picture of what happened the evening of Sept. 2 to the 47-year-old inmate named Matthew Potter.
The first call came in from a deputy at the Lewis County Jail at 11:10 p.m. requesting an ambulance for an unresponsive inmate. The deputy said the inmate was found unconscious but breathing, and that nurses were tending to the man.
At 11:15 p.m., dispatch was notified that a medic had arrived on scene. Other officers and medical personnel soon arrived at the jail as well, according to dispatch recordings.
Potter then arrived via ambulance at Providence Centralia Hospital right before midnight.
At about 2:41 a.m. Sept. 3, a call came in from the Providence Centralia Hospital Emergency Department requesting a callback from the coroner. The dispatcher then asks for a name of the patient who died.
“You guys should be familiar,” the caller said. “It is the Matthew Potter that came over from the jail.”
A second call from the hospital to dispatch at 2:50 a.m. also reports the death of Potter in the Centralia emergency department.
The Lewis County Coroner’s office confirmed that Matthew Potter had died over Labor Day weekend, but did not provide any additional details to McClatchy other than to confirm the age of the deceased.
McClatchy filed a request for records surrounding the investigation of Potter’s death but the request was denied, citing an exemption to Washington public records laws in a letter signed by Sheriff Robert Snaza.
“The investigation subject to this request is active and ongoing; it has not been referred to the prosecuting attorney, and its extent has not been formally disclosed to the target of the investigation,” the letter noted. “Because sharing specific intelligence on the requested case could jeopardize the case investigation, the requested information is exempt from public disclosure.”
Casey Mauermann, the Lewis County public disclosure manager, told McClatchy in an email that “death investigations can take up to a year to complete.”
After several phone calls, McClatchy was unable to reach the Lewis County Sheriff Department for further details or comments.
