In the days before his death last year, nurses at the Rifle Correctional Center ignored textbook symptoms of a cardiac emergency from the disgraced Denver attorney and businessman Steve Bachar, who had a known history of heart problems, his ex-wife and daughters say.
“Had Mr. Bachar been immediately hospitalized, his cardiac emergency would have been detected and his untimely death very likely prevented,” they wrote in a wrongful death lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court against a trio of nurses at the state prison.
Bachar, 58, died in the morning hours of March 15, 2024, just four months after he was sentenced to a three-year prison term for theft. The sentence ended a years-long pattern of purported fraud by Bachar that left several victims out more than $5 million in total.
Bachar’s death was due to heart disease, a county coroner later determined, and came days after he began complaining of symptoms. Wednesday’s lawsuit elaborates on the coroner’s findings and accuses three nurses who saw him of downplaying his complaints.
“All of the defendants were consciously aware that Mr. Bachar needed to be urgently hospitalized, but none took any steps to send him to the emergency room,” alleges Susan Bachar and her two daughters, Emily and Sarah. “Rather, they disregarded Mr. Bachar’s worsening condition, doing nothing as he deteriorated and continued to ask for help.”
Bachar first noticed chest pains and shortness of breath while exercising on March 10. When lightheadedness set in on March 12, he reported it to a nurse, Silmara Dos Santos. She scheduled him for an EKG that afternoon, “which showed that Mr. Bachar’s symptoms were, in fact, being caused by a serious cardiac emergency,” according to the lawsuit.
A nurse practitioner who reviewed the EKG results, Jerry Williford, also declined to send Bachar to a hospital, electing for blood work instead. Bachar had his blood drawn the next day.
“He told defendants he was scared that he might die, and reported that he was still experiencing lightheadedness, shortness of breath and chest tightness,” the lawsuit states.
Dos Santos and her supervisor, Erin Hannesson Ruark, scheduled a follow-up appointment for one week later, on March 21. (Dos Santos, Ruark and Williford are the three defendants.)
At 6:15 a.m. on March 15, two inmates found Bachar thrashing around and then slumping over. One alerted guards, the other performed CPR. Bachar was pronounced dead at 7:50 a.m.
“During his incarceration, Mr. Bachar was a model inmate,” according to his descendants’ lawsuit. “He was sincerely committed to thinking deeply about his actions, the harm he caused, and how to realign himself with his best characteristics. He worked hard to right his past wrongs and find personal redemption – routinely writing his pastor, friends and family.”
“Most of all, Steven Bachar was a committed and loving father,” states the lawsuit, which includes a photo of him dressed in prison garb and standing between his daughters.
The Bachars accuse the three defendants of wrongful death and “deliberately indifferent medical care” that violated Steve Bachar’s protections from cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. They say in their lawsuit that they may later add more defendants and may ask a Colorado jury to award them punitive damages if the case goes to trial.
“As this matter involves ongoing litigation, we are unable to provide further comment at this time,” says Colorado Department of Corrections spokesperson Alondra Gonzalez.
The Bachars are represented by Rachel Kennedy and Anna Holland Edwards from Holland, Holland Edwards & Grossman in Denver. The family declined to comment.
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