By Kevin Krause
The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS — An appeals court has cleared the way for a $10 million Dallas County jail negligence lawsuit to proceed to trial, ruling evidence exists that the county knew inmates were using phone cords to commit suicide when Bryan Posey was found hanging from one in his cell.
Mr. Posey was found in December 2002 with the cord from a pay phone in his single cell wrapped around his neck after he was booked into the Lew Sterrett Justice Center.
The 5th Court of Appeals in Dallas also ruled Wednesday that evidence presented in the lower court showed jail staff failed to properly assess Mr. Posey’s suicide risk during the intake screening process.
Dallas County attorneys had tried to get the lawsuit dismissed, arguing the plaintiffs hadn’t presented enough evidence to warrant a trial.
Tom Carse, the Posey family’s attorney, called the opinion a win and said he’s looking forward to presenting evidence to a jury. A trial date has not yet been set.
“The county has stuck its head in the sand for years about the dangers of corded telephones,” he said.
Bob Schell, chief of the district attorney’s civil division, said the county will likely to appeal that decision to the Texas Supreme Court.
“We don’t agree with that decision and will probably be pursuing further appeals,” he said.
Mr. Posey had been arrested on charges of assaulting his mother, Kim Posey. She told Dallas Police officers that her son was on drugs and hadn’t slept for eight days. The Dallas police officer who arrested Mr. Posey noted his “irrational emotional state” in a report.
At the jail, intake officers asked Mr. Posey some but not all of the questions on the suicide screening form, according to the appeals court opinion. He was moved to a single cell with a non-working corded pay phone.
At the time, the Sheriff’s Department was aware that inmates had used phone cords in the past to commit suicide — one as recently as 2000, according to evidence presented in the county court.
After that 2000 suicide, jail officials ordered all corded telephones replaced with cordless phones. All but two of the phones had been replaced at the time of Mr. Posey’s death.
Shortly after Mr. Posey’s death, the jail’s commander, Chief Deputy Edgar McMillan, sent out the following email:
“I gave orders three years ago that all phone cords would be removed and replaced,” he wrote. “After the recent suicide I find that there are two still in the hold overs. Understand me clearly: I WANT ALL PHONE CORDS REPLACED IN THE HOLD OVERS IMMEDIATELY. The cords, as you can see, assist in the ability to commit suicide.”
Mr. Posey’s parents sued, claiming the county was negligent in failing to properly assess their son’s suicide risk and by placing him in a cell with a broken corded telephone. They are seeking at least $10 million in damages.
Dallas County filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing there wasn’t sufficient evidence in the case.
The justices disagreed.
“The evidence is undisputed that it would be improper to place an inmate with suicidal tendencies in a cell with a corded telephone,” the justices wrote in their opinion.
The jail guard who placed Mr. Posey in the cell with the phone had been involved in a 1993 inmate suicide involving a telephone cord, according to court testimony.
Jail policy stated that inmates exhibiting certain behaviors were to be screened for suicide risk. According to testimony, Mr. Posey was placed in the single cell because he was verbally abusive, uncooperative and displayed “angry, irrational and emotional behavior,” the opinion said.
The jail guard who screened Mr. Posey testified that she marked some answers on the questionnaire as a “no” by making her own assumptions. The guard also testified that she didn’t have to ask the questions verbatim and never asked the first two questions.
A jail administration expert testified the county violated its own jail policies by “failing to complete and correctly administer the suicide screening form,” according to the opinion.
Copyright 2007 Dallas Morning News