Attorney claims Vanderburgh Co. inmate was medically neglected before his death

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) - Ten days in the Vanderburgh County Jail and four days in the hospital is how 37-year-old Jacob Ziliak spent his last two weeks alive.

Now, two years later, his mother is suing the county, saying the negligence of those in charge caused her son’s death.

His mother says if he had been taken to the hospital sooner, she believes he would be alive today.

“He was artistic, he liked doing things with his hands. He had a motorcycle. He had a Harley, loved it,” Cindy Ziliak said.

That is how Cindy Ziliak wants to remember her son.

More than 200 hours of surveillance video of his stay in the Vanderburgh County jail in August of 2022 shows a very different picture. One that’s too painful for Cindy to watch.

“The only thing I watched, I said I just want enough, I want to see him alive, just once,” she said.

Cindy says what happened to her son is something no one should have to endure.

“I just can’t see how anybody with any kind of empathy whatsoever could look at that and ignore it,” Ziliak said.

Jacob Ziliak spent about 10 days in jail from August 6th until the 15th in 2022.

Court records show he was arrested for not showing up in court.

He was facing charges of leaving the scene of an accident and unlawful possession of a syringe.

When he was booked into jail, Attorney Jeremy Schnepper says he had a fever of 100.4 degrees, so jail staff initially put him in an isolated cell.

“In the intake he’s explaining to officers, I felt sick, I felt sick for a while and I really need to go to the hospital, and the officer just shakes his head, no,” Schnepper said.

Schnepper says he watched over 200 hours of surveillance video of Jacob’s time in confinement.

“I think he was essentially caged and treated like an animal. And I think that somebody that’s incarcerated on a bench warrant like that deserves medical care. If you’re sick you get help, if you’re sick you get help. I don’t care if you’re locked up or not,” Schnepper said.

He says the video shows Jacob’s condition gradually worsen, with no real medical attention from the contracted medical team.

“He died from a staph infection in his body. And that would’ve been known to nurses and jail staff had they been checking his body temperature and him telling them he had a fever,” Schnepper said.

Schnepper says Jacob’s official cause of death was staphylococcus aureus sepsis, pneumonia with necrosis, dehydration and malnutrition.

Schnepper says the medical company, Quality Correctional Care, failed Jacob in another way, by falsifying medical records.

August 12 at 12:01 a.m. and August 12th at 8:02 p.m. are two times the lawsuit states medical records show someone came to check Jacob’s vitals, but the surveillance video doesn’t show anyone checking on him during those times.

The last time the medical records show someone at the jail evaluated Jacob is on August 20th, 2022, but Jacob died on August 19th.

Schnepper also says Indiana law requires jail staff to lay eyes on inmates every hour.

“During his 9-10 day stay they missed it 60 some odd times,” he said.

Jacob was not alone in the cell, shortly after being booked, jail staff placed another inmate in the cell with him.

Schnepper says Jacob’s cellmate, who had recently tested positive for covid-19, became Jacob’s advocate and caretaker.

“He would get up to get him water, he would help him to the bathroom, he would hold him at the door so he could check his finger and use the pulse ox. There is one point in the video he tells jail staff, there’s no way this guy has had more than 200 calories since I’ve been in here. He’s like, let’s have a picnic, let’s sit down, let’s eat together, he was just trying to get him to eat. And he can’t. He pukes every time,” Schnepper said.

Schnepper says both Jacob and his fellow inmate begged to get him medical attention, and says those cries went unanswered for days.

“He defecated and urinated on himself for two days and they made him change his own bed when he couldn’t. And you’ll note in there, an officer even says, ‘sit down, Jacob, you look like you’re about to fall over, why don’t you take a deep breath,’” Schnepper said.

On August 15, 2022, EMTs took Jacob to Deaconess.

His mom Cindy says he called her from the ICU.

“He called and he said, ‘mom I’m dying. And I said what, and he said I’m dying, and I said, ‘What’s going on’ and we didn’t have very long to talk. We immediately got dressed and went up there and they had already intubated him. So, we didn’t get to talk to him then either. And he never regained consciousness.”

Now, two years later, Cindy says the pain in her heart has not dulled.

“When it’s a child, I don’t even know how to describe it. There’s no explanation as to how you feel. I’m still adamant that something needs to be done. No one should have to suffer like that. There’s no purpose for it,” Cindy Ziliak said.

“Who do you think is ultimately responsible for what happened,” Caroline Klapp asked Jeremy Schnepper.

“I think everyone is. I think if Sheriff Wedding didn’t know and Mr. Ferguson didn’t know, they should have. I mean it’s your job to know. I think that’s what we intend to find out, exactly how much everybody knew,” Schnepper said.

Now Cindy wants to bring awareness to the issue, in hopes of saving other lives.

“We said justice for Jake. That’s just it. We have to get some justice for him. Our life will never be the same,” Cindy Ziliak said.

Sheriff Noah Robinson was not in office when Jacob died.

Right after he took over for former Sheriff Wedding, the county entered into a contract with a different medical provider.

Former Sheriff Dave Wedding tells us he has not been formally served with the lawsuit. He added he doesn’t know enough about the case to comment.

We also reached out to the county attorney, David Jones, who says they cannot make a comment on pending litigation, as well as any other county employee.

That would include the former jail commander who is also a defendant in the lawsuit, Chad Ferguson.

We received a statement from Quality Correctional Care, the medical company Vanderburgh County used to contract with.

It says, “Quality Correctional Care remains committed to its mission to serve all stakeholders (patients, clients, system) with empathy first and foremost and provide care with a holistic approach to physical health, mental health, and addiction treatment. Out of respect for the patient, his family, and the privacy and confidentiality guaranteed by HIPAA, we will not provide patient-specific information regarding treatment or outcomes.”

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