Jury finds Duchesne County liable for $15 million after woman’s death in county jail
Apr 21, 2025, 5:11 PM | Updated: 5:54 pm
The Duchesne County Jail. (2025 Google Map data)
(2025 Google Map data)
SALT LAKE CITY — A jury found Duchesne County liable for nearly $15 million after a woman died in the county jail’s custody almost nine years ago.
On Friday, a jury found Duchesne County and a nurse at the jail liable for harming 21-year-old Madison Jensen.
Jensen died from severe dehydration in 2016 while she was going through withdrawal in the Duchesne County Jail.
Her father filed a civil complaint after a judge ruled that nurse Jana Clyde, who was supposed to take care of Jensen, wasn’t guilty of negligent homicide.
The complaint said that Jensen was visibly sick. It detailed that she couldn’t keep food or water down for days, and yet a physician’s assistant didn’t go to see her until she had already been dead in her cell for more than 12 hours.
According to court documents, the jury found that Clyde and Duchesne County deprived Jensen of a constitutional right and that their actions resulted in her harm.
The jury found Clyde liable to pay $50,000 and Duchesne County liable to pay $14,957,508.45 to Jensen’s estate.
Heather Peterson contributed to this story.
