By Carol A. Clark
St. Vincent’s Hospital in Santa Fe today released the 28-year-old woman who attempted suicide in her cell at the Los Alamos Detention Center just past midnight Sunday.
Marion Loope of Los Alamos has been incarcerated since her arrest in November on a District Court warrant for failure to comply with conditions of the court.
She had been out on bond following an Oct. 4 incident at Los Alamos Medical Center in which she was charged with two felonies – battery on a health care worker and criminal damage to property.
The judge denied Loope’s request for release at a District Court hearing Thursday.
Details of Loope’s attempt to commit suicide are pending a police investigation into the incident.
She was placed in ICU when first entering the hospital.
“I’m glad she was taken care of and is ok,” Capt. Randy Foster said.
Loope has had several episodes during the last few months in which police were called to respond.
At about 1 p.m., Oct. 4, Cpl. Christopher Ross was dispatched to the Emergency Room at Los Alamos Medical Center in reference to “an out-of-control patient.”
Loope was very upset, according to the police report. She was yelling at the medical staff, wanted to leave, became aggressive toward her mother and kicked a nurse who stepped in between her and her mother to protect the mother.
Ross placed Loope under arrest for battery on a health care worker and transported her to the Detention Center.
According to the report, Loope became verbally abusive to detention staff and while sitting in a holding cell, reached over and tore the front cover off a printer used to print fingerprint cards.
The printer is estimated to cost $1,234.
She also became upset and broke a telephone. According to police records, she became upset while talking on the phone with her parents because they would not bond her out.
Loope threw the phone against the bars of her cell, causing it to break into several pieces.
Another incident occurred about 2:15 p.m. last Dec. 25. Cpl. Joseph Robinson reported that he was called to the jail where Loope was incarcerated following her November arrest on the outstanding warrant.
While in her cell, she ripped a bath towel in half and tore a bed sheet in several places.
Loope also smeared what appeared to be ranch dressing all over the plastic window in her cell.
The detention officer told Robinson in the police report that Loope also threw food all over her cell at meal times.
A Detention Center video recorded Loope’s behavior, according to the report.
Loope had been taken to Las Vegas, N.M. for a competency evaluation and returned to Los Alamos March 19, and since that time had refused to eat.
Police transported the 90 pound, 5-foot-1-inch woman to LAMC for evaluation.
She was released from the hospital and transported back to the Detention Center.
On March 23, Sgt. Monica Salazar-Casias reported that Loope was overheard saying that she was suicidal, which she confirmed with a chaplain, according to the police report.
Though she told the chaplain she would not commit suicide while in jail because everything had been taken from her, staff placed her on suicide watch.
At about 7 p.m., April 5, Loope told an officer that she was going to kill his daughter, according to the report, and she spit at him. The officer deployed OC spray onto her.
EMS was summoned to treat Loope.
At about midnight on April 6, Cpl. Adam Jung responded to the jail to assist detention officers with Loope. She was yelling loudly and smashing a telephone in her jail cell into a window.
Officers placed her in a restraint chair and she kicked one of them, according to the police report.
Prior to being restrained, Loope damaged the window of her cell, the telephone and a pair of orange foam shoes. Pieces of the shoes were in her jail cell, according to the report.
The estimated cost of the window is $100, $200 for the phone and $5 for the shoes.
Loope will remain in the Detention Center pending a hearing.
