Franklin County Fires Jail Officer Following Inmate Death

Earlier this week we reported on information released by the Franklin County Sheriff's Department regarding four recent inmate deaths.

   Probationary officer fired over one death after investigation

Of the four deaths dating back to last November, two were ruled as suicides by the coroner, one of them from an inmate who indicated if jailed he would harm himself. That information was known to people he knew outside but was not revealed to jail officials. Had they known of the threat, additional precautions and monitoring would have been in place.

One of them involved a wanted suspect on an Oregon warrant, who had a medical condition he did not reveal during processing. He was being held pending extradition in the Franklin Jail.  He was rushed to Kadlec where he later passed away from that pre-existing condition.

However, the other death involved an overdose of meth, and an officer has been fired over it.

   KEPR-TV is reporting, as did we, that  Faviola Valenzuela of Pasco was arrested and brought to the jail March 12th, and during her booking, she resisted and fought with officers. She was placed in an observation cell, then on March 15th was found unresponsive. Medical efforts to revive her failed and the autopsy showed she died from a lethal dose of meth.

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The following investigation showed the probationary officer did not follow protocols and was terminated the next day. There are unconfirmed reports about the possible falsification of records by the worker, but those have not been confirmed or verified.