On February 3, 2025, a former Massachusetts prisoner dismissed claims arising from a stillbirth she suffered while incarcerated at Massachusetts Regional Women’s Correctional Center (MRWCC). In return, Lidia Lech agreed to dismiss all claims over the tragedy that she had lodged against Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi, whose office operated the lockup, as well as Dr. Dorothy Von Goeler and other staffers with Baystate Health, which was contractually obligated to provide healthcare to MRWCC prisoners.
Lech was pregnant when she was imprisoned in October 2013. Because a uterine rupture during a previous pregnancy had resulted in a miscarriage, her pregnancy was considered high risk, and she was scheduled to deliver her baby by caesarian section in mid-January 2014. But in mid-December 2013, she began to complain that her baby was “withering away inside of her,” according to the complaint she later filed. In response, staff called her “overbearing,” she said.
On January 2, 2014, Lech complained of vaginal bleeding to guard Natalie Cruz. When she then saw a nurse, Lech confided that she believed she was going into labor. Lech was then transported to a Baystate hospital, where staffers examined her and found that her baby was dead—from a …
