By Kevin O’Hanlon, The Associated Press
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - A lawsuit against Lincoln County Sheriff Jim Carman over the 2001 suicide of a despondent prisoner can proceed, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.
The 8th U.S. Circuit of Appeals upheld an earlier ruling by U.S. District Judge Thomas Shanahan in the lawsuit.
Dennis Wever, 31, was discovered hanged with a blanket in his jail cell. He never regained consciousness and died three days later.
He was the third person in five years to commit suicide in the Lincoln County jail.
The lawsuit, filed by Wever’s mother, claims jail procedures provided “woefully inadequate medical and psychiatric care to inmates of the facility.”
Carman had argued that he is entitled to “qualified immunity” - which protects public officials from lawsuits stemming from the lawful performance of their job.
According to court records, Wever was depressed and crying when he called 911 on December 8, 2001.
The appeals court said that after police arrived, Wever consented to go to a hospital and see a doctor.
But he was instead arrested “for reasons not made clear by the ... reports,” the court said.
Wever offered to go with the police peacefully on the condition that he not be handcuffed. The officers refused, and instead wrestled Wever to the ground and handcuffed him, according to court records.
Wever was then placed in the back of a police car, where he kicked out the back window. He was removed from the car, thrown to the ground, physically subdued, and put in leg chains, according to court records.
After being arrested, “Wever made it clear that he would kill himself if jailed,” the appeals court said.
After Wever was placed in an isolation unit of the jail run by the sheriff’s office, he asked for and was given a blanket by a jailer who “had been advised by one of the arresting officers only minutes earlier that Wever had threatened suicide,” the court said.
He was found hanging several minutes later.
Carman argued that the previous suicides at the jail were not enough to put him on notice that his training and supervision practices were inadequate. He also argued that after a 1999 suicide, he put in place a policy that said inmates who appear likely to hurt themselves must be put in isolation and checked at least every 15 minutes.
“We note this `policy’ would not have prevented the instant suicide, which was not at all unexpected,” wrote Judge Frank McGill. “Wever did exactly what he promised to do shortly after swearing he would do it.
“The policy does not advise officers against giving suicidal prisoners sheets, blankets, or even ropes should they ask,” he said.
McGill also said Wever’s mother “has offered evidence tending to show that placement in isolation cells is overwhelmingly disfavored as a means of monitoring and treating suicidal prisoners.”
Randall Goyette, one of the lawyers representing Carman and the county in the case, declined to comment on the ruling.
The lawsuit asks for unspecified damages.