By Andrew Graham
The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, Calif.
UKIAH, Calif. — A female corrections deputy at Mendocino County Jail collapsed shortly after finding fentanyl in the clothing of an inmate, according to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department.
On Friday evening, a deputy was booking a 24-year-old Willits woman named Dakota Johnson into the jail. A deputy discovered drugs while exchanging the suspect’s clothes for jail-issued clothing, authorities said.
The drugs were collected and the suspect was placed in a holding cell. But as the deputy and a corrections sergeant accompanying her were walking out of the jail building, the deputy said she wasn’t feeling well and then collapsed.
The sergeant called for help from jail medical staff, who recognized the symptoms of an opioid overdose and began administering the overdose drug Naloxone, authorities said. The deputy was transferred to Adventist Health Ukiah Valley Hospital and released after several hours.
Fentanyl has been driving an increase in overdose deaths in the North Bay region. Earlier this month, three women in the Mendocino County Jail were suspected of overdosing on fentanyl.
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