By Bob Egelko
The San Francisco Chronicle
MARTINEZ, Calif. — A federal appeals court reinstated a lawsuit Thursday against a Contra Costa County health worker who allegedly took a mentally ill jail inmate off suicide watch before the man hanged himself in his cell.
Robert Clouthier’s parents can go to trial with their claim that Nancy Blush, a mental health specialist at the jail in Martinez, was deliberately indifferent to his medical needs, said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The 3-0 ruling reversed a federal judge’s dismissal of the damage suit.
Clouthier, 29, was arrested in July 2005 after arguing with his father, destroying a china cabinet and jumping through a plate glass window at his parents’ Walnut Creek home, the court said.
Clouthier was booked on suspicion of battery and vandalism and told a jail health worker he was suicidal. The worker learned that Clouthier had repeatedly tried to kill himself, most recently two months earlier, so she put him in a safety cell under close observation and had him wear a stiff “suicide smock” that can’t be made into a noose.
Stan Casper, the parents’ lawyer, said Clouthier was bipolar and was living on the street in Walnut Creek at the time of his arrest.
When the worker’s shift ended, she gave her notes to Blush and told her that Clouthier was still suicidal. But after speaking briefly to Clouthier, Blush decided the risk of suicide had lessened and told a deputy to give the inmate normal jail clothes and reduce his monitoring, the court said.
Blush said she had told the deputy to keep Clouthier in an observation cell, but the deputy denied hearing any such instruction.
Clouthier was kept in the observation cell for four more days, then was transferred to the general jail population. He hanged himself from a knotted bedsheet that night.
The appeals court said there was evidence that Blush knew Clouthier was a suicide risk when she allegedly relaxed the jail’s supervision and protective measures.
Blush testified she believed Clouthier was not yet “out of the woods,” but she let him remove the suicide smock and may have been responsible for his transfer to the general population, Judge Sandra Ikuta said in the court ruling.
A “reasonable mental health specialist” who knew of the risk “could not have thought it was lawful to remove key suicide-prevention measures,” Ikuta said.
Casper said the ruling was a step toward “obtaining a modicum of justice.”
Deputy County Counsel Janet Holmes said she was confident a jury would vindicate Blush, whom she described as an experienced health worker. Blush has retired, Holmes said.
“I’ll put her judgment up against anyone’s,” Holmes said. “With a tragic outcome like a suicide, it’s tempting to try to ascribe blame, but the law doesn’t judge defendants by hindsight.”
Copyright 2010 San Francisco Chronicle