Lawsuit filed in death of Essex County inmate who hanged himself while in a straitjacket – NorthJersey.com

The brother of a man who hanged himself while wearing a straitjacket at the Essex County jail filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the county and the facility’s medical care provider, alleging he was not properly screened, monitored and treated for mental illness.  

Lucas Vieira, 41, of East Newark, who according to the lawsuit had struggled with heroin addiction for years, was taken to the Essex County Correctional Facility on Aug. 14, after being arrested for allegedly violating his probation, according to the suit. Two weeks later, after he was transferred to the medical unit at the jail, where he was restrained in a straitjacket and placed on suicide watch, his family was notified by authorities that he had hanged himself. 

Hillary Nappi, one of the attorneys representing Vieira’s estate and his brother, Andre P. Vieira, who are the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said they still don’t know how Vieira took his life while wearing a straitjacket. 

“To our knowledge, we expect there to have been an investigation, but we are not sure what the results of that investigation were, because nothing has been communicated to the decedent’s family,” said Nappi, of Hach Rose Schirripa & Cheverie LLP. “The Vieiras are sort of up in the air about it and they are extremely distraught by it.” 

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Newark, names Essex County, CFG Health Systems, LLC, Charles Green, the warden of the Essex County Correctional Facility, who recently resigned, and other unnamed jail and health care provider personnel as defendants.

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CFG Health Systems provides medical services to several correctional facilities and juvenile detention centers in New Jersey, including the jails in Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Mercer, Monmouth, Ocean, Salem, Union, and Warren counties. It also has contracts in New York at the Albany County Correctional Facility and Schenectady County Correctional Facility. 

Last year, Hudson County officials ended the county’s contract with CFG Health Systems, which had provided the county jail with medical and mental health services for years. The termination came after the death of an inmate who hanged himself in his cell last March. It was the sixth death of an inmate at the Hudson County facility in less than a year. 

Anthony Puglisi, a spokesman for Essex County, said the county does not comment on pending litigation.  CFG Health Systems did not immediately provide a comment. Green could not be reached. 

According to the lawsuit, when Vieira arrived at the jail he completed an intake interview that included questions about mental health problems and history of substance abuse. Eleven days later, on Aug. 25, Vieira was transferred to the medical unit within the facility, where he was placed in a straitjacket and on suicide watch.

The lawsuit claims that throughout the weekend of Aug. 25, jail personnel and corrections officers failed to provide Vieira with further mental health treatment or to properly treat his “suicidal tendencies.” 

 On Aug. 27, Vieira did not attend a scheduled court appearance, and his roommates, who were in court, were told that Vieirawas in “terrible physical and mental distress and unable to travel,” according to the suit. The next day at 6:30 a.m. Vieira hanged himself and died. 

“Mr. Vieira was placed in a straitjacket, which is the extreme measure that should only be used with a prisoner if they are presenting a very clear-cut risk to themselves, or to correctional officers or other inmates,” Nappi said. “And we know that Mr. Vieira was placed in a straitjacket, so if he was placed in a straitjacket he was the highest-level risk, and if he was the highest-level risk he should have had constant supervision.”

The lawsuit alleges that Essex County and Green failed in their duties to properly train and supervise their employees in adequately assessing, monitoring and treating inmates with suicidal tendencies and other psychological problems. It also claims that they failed to properly train and supervise corrections officers and jail staff to maintain a safe and suitable environment and “to keep inmates safe from injury, harm, or death.”

Vieira’s estate and brother are seeking compensatory and punitive damages of more than $1 million dollars, as well as attorneys’ fees and the costs of the lawsuit. 

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