North Platte attorney Terry Waite was tabbed to represent Lincoln County in a wrongful death lawsuit filed in federal court Thursday.

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Waite has considerable experience in federal court, and also has defended both the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office and North Platte Police Department in lawsuits as well.

Waite said he received a copy of the lawsuit, filed by Kara Hawkins on behalf of the estate of Phillip Hatcher, on Thursday. The lawsuit does not state Hawkins’ exact relationship to the deceased beyond that she is the representative of his estate.

Hawkins filed suit alleging that Lincoln County, the city of North Platte, and Great Plains Regional Medical Center were all willfully negligent in Hatcher’s death. Hatcher committed suicide while in custody at Lincoln county Jail in June 2008.

Waite said, “Mr. Hatcher’s death is a tragedy, but it is not a tragedy for which the Sheriff’s Office or jail personnel is responsible. They have policies and procedures in place, and they followed them.”

Waite said he would have to further review the complaint before making additional comments.

A grand jury was convened in the matter in Sept. 2008, and found that the county was not responsible for Hatcher’s death.

The lawsuit

Hawkin’s lawsuit claimed that Hatcher was arrested for suspicion of theft and traffic offenses June 1, 2008.

The suit said that Hatcher “suffered from serious mental illnesses that caused him to be suicidally destructive.”

It also stated that when city police officers arrested Hatcher he was in the middle of attempting suicide by slitting his wrists.

According to Hawkins, Hatcher “demonstrated himself to be a serious risk of suicide” at GPRMC. The suit alleged that Hatcher told staff he had a history of mental illness, that he had financial and legal troubles, that his romantic relationship had just ended, that he had previously attempted suicide, and that he felt he had no support system. Hatcher also refused to sign a “no suicide” contract presented to him by emergency room personnel, the suit said.

“Phillip was in a state of despair so profound that, due to his serious psychiatric disorders, he was unable to make decisions for his own health and safety,” it read.

In spite of all that, the lawsuit alleged, GPRMC released Hatcher to police for immediate incarceration instead of further evaluation and treatment. This was in violation of his constitutional protection from excessive punishment, the document said.

Hatcher’s unstable behavior continued at the jail, according to the lawsuit. Despite the warnings, the County denied Hatcher protections and health care for mentally ill and suicidal inmates that Nebraska Jail standards require, the suit said.

The suit stipulated that the County never provided Hatcher with the care he needed and was entitled to by law, and as a result he was found hanging in his cell June 4. He used his tube socks as a noose, and died two days later.

Causes of action

The 14-page document lays out five causes for action.

The first alleged that county officials were deliberately indifferent to Hatcher’s constitutional rights to due process, equal protection, and bodily integrity, as well as freedom from excessive punishment.

That indifference, the lawsuit said, deprived Hatcher of his rights.

The second cause of action stated that city and county officials knew that Hatcher was unstable, and since he was in their custody, they had an obligation to exercise reasonable care in “selection, training, assignment, supervision and retention of its professional staff.”

The failure to do so, the suit alleged, was tantamount to “deliberate indifference to a known risk of constitutional deprivation.”

The lawsuit said, “Philip could not have reasonably discovered that city and county had a custom or practice of tolerating misconduct by employees, and of failing to provide adequate training and staffing” in regard to suicide prevention.

The third cause of action stipulated that hospital staff ignored obvious signs of Hatcher’s mental distress. By discharging him instead of keeping him for further evaluation, the hospital violated Hatcher’s civil rights under EMTALA laws, the suit said.

The fourth cause of action admitted, “Although the County put Phillip on suicide precautions” but continued that “County thwarted its own suicide precaution procedure by, among other things, providing Phillip with the means to take his own life.”

Jail personnel also failed to monitor Hatcher frequently enough, the suit alleged.

“The County’s failed to take reasonable measures to protect Phillip from harm. Those failures were a direct and proximate cause of Philip’s death.”

The final cause of action held that by failing to hold Hatcher for further evaluation, GPRMC was also responsible for Hatcher’s death.

Damages

The lawsuit sought punitive damages from all defendant parties in an amount to be proven at trial.

The defendants “should be punished through the imposition of punitive damages so as to make an example of conduct that will not be tolerated,” the suit sated.

Attorney’s fees are also sought, along with damages including $5,000 in funeral expenses and compensatory damages for civil rights violations.

Hawkins requested that the matter be tried before a jury in North Platte. The federal courtroom is in the Post Office on Third Street.Hawkins is represented by Scottsbluff attorney Maren Lynn Chaloupka and Florida attorney Michael Maddox.