News

IFMK Law Shareholder, Bhairav Radia obtained summary judgment for Whiteside County and its Sheriff in a lawsuit alleging they violated the constitutional rights of an inmate who committed suicide in the county jail. Upon his admission into the jail, the inmate was deemed a suicide risk, so he was initially housed in a cell under suicide precautions pending mental health evaluation. Six days and two mental health evaluations later, the jail’s mental health counselor determined the inmate was no longer suicidal. On her recommendation, the inmate was removed from suicide precautions and moved to regular housing. The inmate appeared to do well in general population and showed no apparent signs of being suicidal over the next 2-3 weeks. Then he covered one of the observation windows in his cell, in violation of jail rules, and hung himself by his bedsheet. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois rejected the estate’s arguments that the Sheriff had a widespread practice of failing to enforce its rule against blocking cell windows, and the inmate’s death could have been prevented if the Jail’s officers had strictly enforced the jail’s rule against covering windows. The evidence showed that some officers were strict and others were lax in enforcing the rule. The court ruled that showing that some officers were lax in enforcing the jail rule was insufficient to establish, as the law requires, that the laxity was so pervasive so as to show that the failure to enforce the rule was universal and amounted to acquiescence on the part of the Sheriff. The court concluded that the estate could not prove that the inmate’s suicide was caused by any official policy, practice, or action taken by the County or Sheriff.