DUI suspect charged after ‘violently spitting’ on staff members at local hospital, police say

PITTSBURGH — A woman who police say was injured in a car crash is facing additional charges after she allegedly spit on several staff members at Allegheny General Hospital.

According to a criminal complaint, Ashley Jackson, 22, of Moon Township, was hospitalized after she was involved in a crash where she fled the scene. She was arrested by Pittsburgh police and taken to Allegheny General Hospital, where she made multiple requests to leave against medical advice.

Jackson was denied leaving because of her level of intoxication and head injury, the criminal complaint said.

Court documents said when Jackson realized she wasn’t getting her way, she started to dislodge her intravenous lines from both arms and tried to get out of the hospital bed.

The doctor ordered Jackson to be restrained and sedated. When the shot was administered, Jackson became “highly aggressive,” according to court documents.

Jackson tried several times to bite her way out of the restraints. A nurse who was standing behind the hospital bed trying to restrain her was bitten on the finger.

An allied officer was standing beside the nurse and was scratched by Jackson’s front teeth while she also tried to bite him, court documents said.

Jackson began “violently spitting” at a Highmark police officer who was trying to hold her down by her shoulder, according to the criminal complaint. She was told to stop, but she continued to spit on several staff members, hitting the Highmark police officer several times.

Jackson also spit on another Highmark police officer and two nurses in the face, the complaint said.

Allied security officers put a spit mask on Jackson, but she was able to shake it off several times and keep spitting on staff members.

Jackson was released from the hospital before criminal charges could be filed, so there’s now an arrest warrant out for her, according to the complaint.

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