$550,000 Settlement After Juvenile’s Suicide at Charlotte Jail
On January 2, 2025, a settlement was signed by the Plaintiff in a lawsuit over the suicide of a juvenile pretrial detainee held at the lockup in North Carolina’s Mecklenburg County. Under the terms of the agreement, the County agreed to pay $550,000 to the administrator of the Estate of the dead teen, “D.W.” In addition to the cash payout, Sheriff Garry L. McFadden promised to make substantive policy changes to protect detainees.
Though he was just 17, D.W. had endured a traumatic life before arriving at the County Detention Center (CDC). By age three, he had been sexually abused. By age six, he had been assaulted with a gun. When he was 11, D.W. was the victim of more abuse and assault. He also suffered a serious head injury as a child, and his father was imprisoned by the time D.W. was arrested. As a result of these events, D.W. had noted anger issues; he was a restless, impulsive risk-taker, and a substance abuser, too.
On November 5, 2020, D.W. was booked into the Rockingham CDC and transferred to the Alexander Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Alexander County. There, employees of the state Department Public Safety (DPS) placed him on “suicide alert.” But he was taken off that status and not put back on, nor seen by a psychiatrist—even when he learned that he was being charged with first-degree murder, at which point he began to exhibit “more than one indicator associated with suicidal ideation,” according to the complaint later filed on his behalf.
D.W. was transferred on November 20, 2020, to the Mecklenburg CDC’s Jail North. A mental health assessment was not conducted upon intake, so he was not placed on suicide watch. But the next day he was placed on suicide alert, which required guards to look into his cell every 10 minutes. Yet he was also left there with bed sheets and sharp objects, despite specific instructions to the contrary from Alexander staff. Unsurprisingly, at around 1:56 pm on November 21, 2020, D.W. was found hanging from a bed sheet in his cell. Efforts to revive him failed, and he was pronounced dead.
With the aid of Charlotte attorney Michael L. Littlejohn, Adriana E. Blackwell, D.W.’s mother and Administrator of his Estate, filed suit in federal court for the Western District of North Carolina in April 2022. Proceeding under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, she accused Defendant staffers at the Mecklenburg CDC of failing to make cell checks as often as required by policy and falsifying their records to show compliance, in violation of D.W.’s rights under the Fourteenth Amendment and the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. ch.126 § 12101 et seq. Plaintiff also sought to extend liability to McFadden and the County for failing to rein in the error, under Monell v. Dep’t of Soc. Svcs.,436 U.S. 658 (1978), as well as lodging state-law claims for the teen’s wrongful death.
Defendants moved to dismiss the complaint, which a magistrate recommended largely denying on June 15, 2023, a recommendation that the district court then adopted on July 24, 2023. See: Blackwell v. McFadden, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 128458 (W.D.N.C.); and 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 127227 (W.D.N.C.). The parties then proceeded to reach their settlement agreement. Under its terms, in addition to the payout, McFadden’s office agreed to a policy change allowing pod supervisors to place potentially suicidal detainees on close observation prior to assessment by a medical official. Other terms included a requirement that guards irregularly monitor potentially suicidal detainees at least every 15 minutes, as well as receiving training to identify and supervise suicidal detainees. Qualified medical personnel must also be on-hand to assess suicidal detainees and place them “on a level of suicide precautions consistent with their level of risk.” The jail must further ensure adequate staffing in suicidal housing pods and require supervisory in-person checks during rounds. The settlement also included legal fees and costs. See: Blackwell v. McFadden, USDC, (W.D.N.C.), Case No. 3:22-cv-00167.
Related legal case
Blackwell v. McFadden
| Year | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Cite | USDC, (W.D.N.C.), Case No. 3:22-cv-00167 |
| Level | District Court |
| Conclusion | Settlement |