Colorado Jail TV Room Death: Guards ‘Not Criminally Negligent’

GOLDEN, CO – Susanne Burgaz, 55, a mother of four children, ended her life in the dayroom of the Jefferson County Detention Facility last August. A former fine artist and scenic painter for television programs, she reached the end of her earthly journey homeless, alcoholic and disabled, strangling herself with the cords of a television set, just as a deputy on “walkthrough” passed in the hallway nearby.

On Mar. 16, a report from Peter Weir, 1st. Judicial District Attorney, found guards at the facility not criminally negligent in her strangulation, which was recorded on video at the jail.

But the DA’s report, obtained through the Colorado Open Records Act, acknowledged that time stamps on two different videos showed that a sheriff’s deputy walked past the locked dayroom between 9:25-9:27 p.m., just as Burgaz was fashioning the television cord into a noose and making several attempts to hang herself.

“It cannot be proven that this was criminally negligent conduct,” the DA’s report said. “[J]ail deputies [did not] fail to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a certain result (i.e., Ms. Burgaz’s death) would occur and that the risk was of such nature that their failure to perceive it was a gross deviation from a reasonable person’s standard of care.”

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s office staff made a presentation about the incident at the District Attorney’s office on Dec. 13, 2017, three months after Burgaz’s Aug. 31 death. They submitted videos of Burgaz’s last moments in Dayroom 2 (also called “Dayroom B”), as well as videos of the hallways of the jail’s Special Housing Unit and testimony from jail personnel and Burgaz’s cellmate.

Burgaz was homeless at the time of her arrest, and gave her address as the St. Francis Center in Denver.
Friends told Patch she was a lifelong artist, born in Sweden, who received a Master of Fine Arts degree in California, then worked for a time as a set designer and member of a scenic design union, employed by CBS in California. She also ran her own home décor design company in Wisconsin, according to LinkedIn.

“She was part of our group in a very small high school in rural Wisconsin,” said Chad Anderson. “Sussi came from Sweden freshman year, and that was a big deal. She was the best artist in the school.”

But Burgaz’s addiction to alcohol and drugs was a lifelong problem as she bounced between her home state of Wisconsin, Chesapeake Virginia, and Metro Denver.

She volunteered to help other women recovering from addiction by working as a volunteer for Wisconsin Voices for Recovery between 2014-15, confirmed director Caroline Miller.

But her demons were destructive to herself and to those who knew her. Family members, who asked not to be identified, said her addictions caused them emotional harm. In 2009, she was accused in Madison, Wisconsin of stabbing a puppy because it barked too much. She was also charged with kicking an officer during an arrest for verbally attacking a family.

In Metro Denver, Burgaz racked up low-level local police citations in between 1998-2008 and then in 2016-17 which dragged her into the criminal justice system. The most recent Denver County incidents were for shoplifting, not paying an $11 bar tab and public drunkenness, records show. But not showing up for court in Denver and Metro Denver suburbs pushed those misdemeanors into felonies.

“We don’t discuss anything about our clients,” said Alice Norman, chief public defender for City of Denver. “But there are many people in the system who shouldn’t be in the system in my opinion. The jail is neither an appropriate hospital or a mental health or a detox facility. That’s not what jails are.”

The day before her death, Burgaz was arrested Aug. 30 in Jefferson County on a warrant for failure to appear on earlier charges of shoplifting from a Walmart, and using a fake ID.

“It appears that they took her into custody because she was intoxicated to a point that they thought she might be a danger to herself,” said DA’s Public Information Officer, Pam Russell in an email.

When questioned by booking and medical staff at JeffCo jail’s Special Housing Unit, Burgaz said she “drank a fifth of vodka or more every day for the last twenty years.”

Burgaz had been “red flagged” in the Tiburon law enforcement records system for “an event in July 14, 2008, where she had been placed on suicide watch,” the DA’s report said. The Tiburon “red flag” stays on a person’s records for ten years, where it can then be reviewed by medical personnel or removed, the DA’s report said. Burgaz was asked on Aug. 30 if she was suicidal by jail personnel and said she was not, the report said.

Burgaz, wearing a metal knee brace, a plastic ankle guard and walking with a walker, was placed in the Special Housing Unit because of her trouble walking, not because of a fear of suicide attempts, the report said. Burgaz told jail personnel and her cell mate she had recently been raped in Commerce City, but did not give further details.

The day she died, Burgaz appeared in court on the two JeffCo charges, and was told she would be released.
But later that evening, half an hour before she died, she got some bad news. A deputy told her she would not be released because she had two outstanding cases in Englewood Municipal Court for failure to appear. Each of those cases had a $750 bond, the deputy told her at 9 p.m. Then the deputy asked if she’d like to return to the dayroom.

At 9:09 p.m., with her JeffCo release paperwork clutched in one hand, Burgaz returned to Dayroom 2, described as a room with “a television set mounted on the wall, reading materials and a table with chairs in it,” the report said. “It is a locked room which is visible from the SHU hallway through a small window.”

A deputy later told investigators Burgaz’s demeanor was “normal” and the same as the previous day. “She engaged in normal conversation and did not appear to be in distress,” the report said.

On one of 16 unmonitored camera views, visible only from an empty workstation, no one saw Burgaz in Dayroom 2 pull herself up with her walker at 9:22 p.m. and walk to the television set affixed to the wall. Investigators said she looked behind the television set and then toward the locked dayroom door.

At 9:23, Burgaz appeared to be trying to tug at the television cords, and the television turned off. At 9:24, she was behind the television, "appearing to manipulate the cords" and by 9:25 she tied the cords into a noose, which she put around her neck.

In another video, between 9:25 – 9:27 p.m. Deputy Scalise conducted a walkthrough of the special housing unit, but “it was unclear whether he looked into Dayroom B because the hallway video camera’s angle is obstructed by an open door which prevents a clear view of his entire walkthrough.”
Scalise reportedly led another inmate back to his cell from the shower at 9:25 and then finished his walk-through at 9:27:47 p.m.

At 9:25, the dayroom video showed Burgaz “standing in the corner of the day room,” the report said.
“She has pulled the wall-mounted TV away from the wall and she has the TV cord in her hand. She is manipulating the cord and tugging on it, trying to form a noose. At 9:25:51 p.m. she puts the cord over her head, lowers herself to the ground, but the noose doesn’t hold. She stands back up and until 9:28, when she again places it over her head, she is trying to tie the cord more securely.”

Finally, at 9:29, Burgaz re-wrapped the cord into a noose and wrapped it around her neck for a third time, the report said. She leaned forward, then fell backward into a seated position. The video showed no movement after 9:34 p.m.

At 9:59 p.m., two other deputies came to escort Burgaz back to her cell and found her seated on the floor, non-responsive, with the cords around her neck. One deputy called for help and immediately the two lifted Burgaz up and loosened the cords around her neck to free her airway, the report said. A radio call was placed reporting an attempted suicide, and CPR was attempted, until emergency personnel took Burgaz to a local hospital. She was removed from life support Sept. 5 and the Jefferson County Coroner determined her cause of death to be anoxic brain injury due to hanging, and manner of death to be suicide.

Scalise said in his report that he had completed a walk-through at 9:28 p.m. “As I always do, I looked in each cell and dayroom to ensure all inmates were acting and behaving normally. On this walk, I do not remember anything of significance occurring. All inmates in cells and dayrooms appeared to be normal to me.”

Weir’s March 16 report said jail deputies didn't get clues from Burgaz that she was upset or suicidal.

"She was not crying or yelling at the deputy sheriff. She spoke rationally about her situation and appeared to believe that she would not even be extradited on the warrants ... The video of the dayroom shows a woman sitting in a chair intently watching television. She appears to be calm and not in distress. ... It is jarring when she gets up, walks over to the TV and reaches for the cords to being the process of causing her own death," the report said. "While this is a tragic outcome, the conduct in this matter does not rise to the level of a gross deviation of a standard of care."

Weir's report said criminal charges for JeffCo jail deputies were not legally appropriate, but added, “It is not within our office’s purview to provide any opinion on the administrative or civil aspects of Ms. Burgaz’s death.”

Burgaz’s journey in and out of the Metro Denver criminal justice system is not unusual for people in the area with serious addiction, alcoholism or mental health problems, said Tom Luehrs, executive director of Denver’s St. Francis Center where Burgaz spent her last days at the day program.

“Each person has a story to be told. If we can keep people out of the category of just ‘homeless:’ Here’s a woman with abilities and talents, who could have been a creative, contributing member of society. But after a couple of rough situations, she ends up dead,” Leuhrs said. “We need increased mental and behavioral health services, but the state keeps cutting and they keep disappearing. A lot of people fall through the cracks.”

High school friend Anderson said Burgaz showed talent early when she won the school contest to redesign the Wisconsin Heights High School mascot in the early 80s – changing the image of the Vanguards from a 1960’s-style rocket to a knight on horseback, Anderson said.

“I guess it’s ironic that we drive by the high school in Mazomanie and there’s her logo. Every day we look at it,” Anderson said.

Burgaz’s last arrest report in Denver Aug. 16, describes how police were summoned to a 7-Eleven in the 1900 block of Colfax where Burgaz was allegedly publicly intoxicated in the alley.

“While waiting for the detox van to arrive, the defendant opened the top of a 375 ml bottle of Kentucky Deluxe Whiskey and drank approximately ¼ of the bottle in front of officers,” wrote the arresting officer.

She was scheduled to appear Sept. 16 in Denver Municipal Court for a public drunkenness charge, but by then Susanne Burgaz was already dead.

This story has been updated.

Image via Jefferson County Sheriff's Office