Racine County's sheriff is confident that jail staff responded properly to a pregnant inmate who gave birth in her cell Wednesday. The mother of 20-year-old Melissa Woten claims her daughter was ignored by officers despite repeatedly calling for help. The woman claims an officer did not go to Woten's cell until she was actually having the child in a toilet.
Sheriff Robert Carlson says there is documentation that proves otherwise in form of phone calls, video footage, computer logs and recorded radio transmissions. At a Thursday press conference, Carlson provided a timeline in which Woten was taken to the jail's medical facility about an hour after her first contractions then taken back her cell a half-hour later. He claims deputies checked on her four times before she gave birth. The infant later died. The sheriff could not explain why the medical staff thought it necessary for Woten to return to her cell.
Carlson says if he finds out someone has been lying in the ongoing investigation then obstruction charges will be brought against them.
