The criminal case against a Duchesne County Jail nurse has been reinstated by the Utah Court of Appeals and a trial has been ordered. 51-year-old Jana Clyde was charged in September 2017 by the State of Utah Attorney General with Negligent Homicide, a class A Misdemeanor, in the death of Madison Jensen in the Duchesne County Jail on December 1st, 2016. In a press release from the Duchesne County Sheriff’s Office in 2017, it was stated that before her death, Madison Jensen’s family had reported Madison to law enforcement authorities and she was taken into custody and then died at the Duchesne County Jail as a result of complications related to chronic heroin use. In February 2018, 8th District Court Judge Lyle Anderson dropped the charge against Clyde on the basis that, according to Anderson, there was no direct evidence that there was a gross deviation from the standard of care, as required for criminal negligence. The Attorney General’s Office appealed Anderson’s decision and the Utah Court of Appeals filed their opinion on June 13th, directing the lower court to order a trial for Jana Clyde on the charge of Misdemeanor Negligent Homicide. In the opinion, authored by Judge Jill Pohlman and signed by Judges Christiansen Forster and Ryan Harris, the State’s claims and Clyde’s corresponding arguments are detailed, concluding that “the magistrate should have bound Clyde over for trial”, reversing the 8th District Court decision. Madison Jensen was 21-years-old when she was found dead at the Duchesne County Jail. The report from the state Medical Examiner’s office listed Jensen’s cause of death as Probable Cardiac Arrhythmia due to Dehydration due to opiate withdrawal. The final pathologic diagnosis referenced a history of illicit drug abuse but that the postmortem toxicology was negative for alcohol and drugs of abuse. The Medical Examiner’s report stated that the toxicology was consistent with profound dehydration due to withdrawal. The report also shows that Madison weighed only 87 pounds at the time of her death which was a significant weight loss from 4 days earlier when booked into the jail.
