Case Explained:This article breaks down the legal background, charges, and implications of Case Explained: Iowa mental health clinic jail suicide lawsuit revived on appeal – Legal Perspective
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A central Iowa mental health provider may be liable for a Madison County Jail detainee’s suicide, a federal appeals court ruled has ruled in reviving his family’s lawsuit.
Jordan Payne took his own life in his cell in June 2020, immediately after a meeting with a case manager from Eyerly Ball Community Mental Health Services who suggested to jail staff Payne was not in danger. That led to a lawsuit from Payne’s family that a federal district judge dismissed, ruling they couldn’t show Eyerly Ball had a legal duty to protect Payne.
The Tuesday, Jan. 6, ruling from the Eighth Circuit appeals court revives the lawsuit. The court found that the case manager not only failed to prevent Payne’s suicide, but may have put him at increased risk by downplaying the potential.
Attorneys for Eyerly Ball did not respond to messages seeking comment. Bob Rehkemper, an attorney for the Paynes, called the ruling “a critical step toward guaranteeing the most basic safety needs of arrested individuals suffering from mental health crises.”
“Suicide is the leading cause of death for incarcerated individuals across the country,” he said in an email. “This decision sets the sensible precedent that individuals and businesses who make money providing services to inmates can be held legally accountable when they fail to deliver the most basic level of competent care.”
He said he wouldn’t kill himself in jail. Then he did.
According to court filings, Payne was booked into the jail on June 9, 2020, on a warrant for contempt. On intake forms, he indicated a history of mental illness and self-harm. On June 11, he requested mental health services, which at the time were provided by Eyerly Ball, and on June 12, he met with case manager Scott Thomas.
In that interview, Payne made a number of alarming statements about hearing voices, multiple recent suicide attempts and self-injuries, being unable to keep himself calm and having unwanted and intrusive thoughts about “chew(ing) my veins out” and similar impulses. He also said, “I’m not going to kill myself here, but I [am not] going to guarantee I w[on’t] kill myself when I leave here.”
According to the lawsuit, Thomas afterward reported to jail employee John Weakland that Payne said he wouldn’t kill himself in the jail but did not relay any of the other concerning statements. Weakland later testified he came away from the conversation believing there was no concern for Payne’s wellbeing. Ten minutes after Payne was returned to his cell and left unmonitored, he took his own life.
Did Eyerly Ball mislead jail staff about danger?
The district judge who granted judgment for Eyerly Ball found that it was the jail, not the case worker, that had a legal duty to keep Payne safe, and that his family had failed to show a plausible legal claim for negligence or wrongful death.
The appeals court, however, cited a legal doctrine that a defendant who undertakes to reduce the risk of harm to another, but instead increases that risk, can be held liable. In Payne’s case, Judge Bobby Shepherd wrote, the case manager’s selective account of his conversation with Payne may have lulled jail staff, who were aware Payne had reported prior mental health issues, into an unwarranted degree of complacency.
“A jury could… reasonably infer that Thomas, by selectively reporting Jordan’s interview statements, gave Weakland the false impression that Jordan was not at risk — essentially eliminating any concerns that Weakland may have had and causing Weakland to let his guard down,” Shepherd wrote. “Stated differently, a jury might reasonably infer that Weakland elected to forgo more frequent monitoring or other suicide-prevention measures he might otherwise have engaged in in reliance on Thomas’s off-base assessment.”
The decision means the case will return to the district court and proceed toward trial. Payne’s family also originally brought claims against Madison County, but the county separately settled its portion of the lawsuit in August for $350,000, Rehkemper said.
William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com or 715-573-8166.