Saratoga police cleared in woman's death in lockup

PHOTOGRAPHER: Lee Coleman

The death of a 38-year-old Schuylerville woman being held in the city police lockup March 18, 2010, has been ruled accidental by the state Commission of Correction.

The Saratoga Springs Police Department had arrived at the same conclusion earlier this year after its investigation into the death of Meredith Lickwola.

Lickwola was an unemployed, single mother of three children who had a history of crack cocaine addiction, the report said. She did not have custody of her two youngest children at the time of her death.

The state report said that Lickwola died from cardiac arrhythmia (an irregular heartbeat) due to the combined effects of clonazepam, oxycodone, methadone, amitriptyline, nortriptyline and citalopram while in police custody. The state report recommends that “this case be closed as an accidental death.”

Lickwola was arrested on a warrant on the morning after St. Patrick’s Day. She was placed in the city lockup at 2:30 a.m. and was observed regularly by city police while in jail and appeared to be OK. After the last supervisory round at 5:47 a.m., however, police discovered Lickwola lying on her stomach and unresponsive.

The city Fire Department was called at 5:57 a.m. and emergency medical personnel said she was unconscious but breathing, the state report said. She was taken to Saratoga Hospital, where attempts to revive her were unsuccessful.