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Commission reinstates guard in youth prison suicide attempt

Posted at 3:55 PM, Sep 17, 2018
and last updated 2018-09-17 16:55:17-04

A former prison guard who falsely claimed she had checked on a suicidal teen inmate has her job back.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports the state Employment Relations Commission decided Wednesday to reinstate guard Rosemary Esterholm with $29,000 in back pay.

Esterholm and other guards left Sydni Briggs alone in a cell in Wisconsin’s youth prison in 2015. They didn’t check on her for 40 minutes and later discovered she had hanged herself.

Esterholm completed paperwork claiming she checked Briggs five times even though Esterholm wasn’t on duty in Briggs’ unit at those times.

Briggs survived and won a $19 million settlement. Esterholm was fired in March after she acknowledged in a deposition she didn’t check Briggs.

The commission accepted her explanation that she mistakenly filled out the paperwork during a chaotic day and deserved only a one-day suspension.