No criminal liability in the death of women in Dane County's prison, says district prosecutor

Madison, Wis. – The deputies and employees of the sheriff of Dane County will not face criminal liability in the death of a woman in 2024 in Dane County's prison, said Dane County, Ismael Ozanne, the district attorney of Dane County, on Tuesday.

The 38 -year -old Lisa Harding was no longer reacted to her prison cell on February 23, 2024 and died later. Harding was arrested the day before her death in connection with two bank robberies.

According to Ozanne, a plastic bond with a white powder substance was found in Harding's cell. Another binding was removed from her airways by paramedics and two more were found during their autopsy.

Harding's cause of death was poisoning of cocaine and Aripiprazole. Ozanne said that the metabolites of fentanyl had been found during a toxicological analysis without fentanyl prehanda. Her death was ruled as an accident.

According to Ozanne, Harding was not placed in prison by electronic body scanning devices and was not searched during the booking process, since after her arrest on February 22, 2024, she cited a positive pregnancy test in a hospital.

Ozanne said that Harding had hidden objects on or in her person in the past and was put on the suicide clock in prison. It was accommodated in the female segregation unit and checked every 13 minutes by a MP.