A federal judge declined a request to dismiss a Lewiston mother’s lawsuit against two Androscoggin County corrections officers, whom she has accused of violating their constitutional duty to provide her son with adequate health care.

Pamela Ashby is suing the county, several of its jail employees and medical staff for the death of her son Trevor Saunders. He died at the jail on Nov. 18, 2023, from pneumonia.

Ashby has said jail staff ignored pressure wounds that had developed on her son’s back and grown infected, worsening his condition. In court records, her attorneys say the jail was aware that her son was recovering from a spinal stroke, and that they should have taken him to a hospital.

An attorney for two of the jail’s officers — John Clevenger and Bryan Litchfield — had asked that they be dismissed from the case under qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that protects public employees from lawsuits.

In his order denying the motion on Tuesday, Chief U.S. District Judge Lance Walker wrote that he was not yet convinced the men were protected.

Neither man denied that Saunders’ serious medical needs received inadequate care, according to Walker’s order; they argued instead that Ashby had failed to show how they were “deliberately indifferent” to her son’s needs, which would not make them eligible for qualified immunity. The men had argued that because Saunders had received “some medical care before his death,” they cannot be sued, according to Walker’s order.

“In my view, however, the mere fact that an inmate receives some form of medical care is not an antidote that automatically absolves nonmedical jail staff of all responsibility for that inmate’s health and safety,” Walker wrote.

The judge said that with more evidence, later in the case, Clevenger and Litchfield could renew their qualified immunity arguments.

“While disappointed with the ruling, we appreciate the Court’s acknowledgment of the high burden the Plaintiff must meet going forward,” their attorney Kasia Park said Wednesday. “We remain confident that discovery will clarify significant inaccuracies in the Complaint and will demonstrate that John Clevenger and Bryan Litchfield did not violate Mr. Saunders’ rights.”

In a written statement, Ashby said she was “heartened to learn that the judge agreed that the case against the individual officers can move forward.”

“We’ve overcome the first hurdle in what will be a long road to justice for Pam and Trevor,” her attorney, Rosie Wennberg, said in a statement.

The remaining defendants, including the county and about a dozen other employees, have filed answers in court denying Ashby’s allegations.