Woman dead after being found unresponsive in her Fayette County Detention Center cell
A female inmate at the Fayette County Detention Center died Saturday after being found unresponsive in her cell.
Jail staff found Alicia Meredith Marie Ropp, 27, unresponsive at 8:16 a.m., according to officials at the city’s Community Corrections division.
Officers, YesCare Medical staff who provide medical services at the jail, and Lexington Fire Department members who were called to the scene tried to revive Ropp, but they were unsuccessful.
The Fayette County Coroner’s Office pronounced the Lexington woman dead at 10 a.m. Saturday.
“Lexington Police and the Coroner’s Office are investigating the cause and manner of her death. Such an investigation is normal in the case of an in-custody death,” the jail said in a news release.
The detention center will also complete an internal review of the incident.
Ropp’s death comes on the heels of a Herald-Leader investigation published last week that found 234 people died in Kentucky jails between 2020 and 2024, eight of them in Fayette County.
Critics say the rising numbers are caused by a jail system ill-equipped to provide adequate medical care, while corrections officials blame the trend on factors including COVID-19, increasing use of powerful drugs and the effects of inmates’ lifestyles.
Ropp was booked on Tuesday on charges of probation violation, leaving the scene of an accident, not having insurance and failure to register a motor vehicle, authorities said.
A police uniform citation filed in Fayette County District Court indicates that Ropp was arrested at her workplace, the Dollar General store on Legends Lane, on a charge of probation violation for a misdemeanor offense.
Court records indicate the case was scheduled for a hearing March 4. Ropp was on probation after being convicted on two drug possession charges in January 2022 in Fayette County, court records show.
The charges related to the vehicle collision appear to stem from another incident in 2022, when a warrant was issued for Ropp’s arrest in Fayette County District Court.
Court records show Ropp had cases in Russell County related to bail jumping and drug possession from 2022.
