$800,000 Settlement Reached in Hawai‘i Jail Suicide Case
by Chuck Sharman
Hawai‘i lawmakers voted on May 26, 2026, to pay an $800,000 settlement reached by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) with the Estate of Jimuel Gatioan, 49, who committed suicide while awaiting trial in April 2023 at Oahu Community Correctional Center (OCCC).
The payout came in the wake of a damning 2025 report blasting the DCR for a backlog of prisoners and detainees needing treatment at the state psychiatric hospital. As PLN reported, staffing shortages also meant they were being treated “by unlicensed clinicians without adequate supervision.” [See: PLN, Apr. 2026, p.38.]
The payout was presented for legislative approval with a note from the office of state Attorney General Anne Lopez (D) that recalled how “Gatioan expressed suicidal ideation to several family members over multiple phone calls,” after which his wife “notified both the prosecutor and Mr. Gatioan’s defense attorney.” Both of whom, in turn, “made phone calls to the facility warning it that Mr. Gatioan was a suicide risk.” Yet the OCCC staffer who evaluated the detainee determined he was not at risk of suicide and did not place him on suicide watch.
Less than a week later, on April 4, 2023, his dead body was found hanging in his cell. With the aid of attorneys Myles S. Breiner, Sean Fitzsimmons and Andrew E.L. Strand of Breiner’s eponymous Honolulu firm, Judith Gaotian filed suit in state Circuit Court in November 2024, accusing DCR and OCCC officials of negligence and gross negligence in her husband’s wrongful death. The complaint made additional claims for intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, along with claims against the state for negligent training and negligent supervision, municipal liability, respondeat superior and/or vicarious liability for the DCR’s alleged pattern and practice of failing to provide adequate mental health care to detainees like Gatioan. The suit further claimed that the DCR failed to provide adequate training to its employees and failed to enforce its policies and procedures, resulting in a failure to protect detainees from self-harm. The parties then proceeded to reach their settlement agreement, with a payout that included costs and fees for the Estate’s attorneys. See: Gatioan v. Hawaii, Haw. 1st Cir. ( O’ahu), Case No. 1CCV-24-0001719.
The payout was approved by state lawmakers when they passed HB 2250, an omnibus measure that also included $600,000 for the death two months before Gatioan’s death of DCR prisoner Brian O’Gorman, as reported elsewhere in this issue.[See: PLN, Sep. 2026, p.62.] What lawmakers didn’t get from Lopez’s brief summary of the case were details of the policy and procedures violated in Gatioan’s case, which Fitzsimmons provided to Honolulu Civil Beat. They included the fact that Gatioan’s botched suicide risk assessment was not performed in a confidential setting by a licensed psychologist but was instead conducted by a student intern through a slot in the locked cell door, within earshot of two cellmates.
“How did he get a rope in there?” added Breiner. “It’s not like shoelaces, which you’re not supposed to have anyway. It raises all kinds of questions.”
Fitzsimmons said also that the response to the cellmates’ calls for help was delayed because one of two guards assigned to the area was absent, so the other had to remain in the control booth and wait while a third guard was summoned from another area. As a result, he said, the guards that he deposed admitted that “if protocols were followed, there’s a very strong chance that Jimuel would be alive.”
OCCC officials have been on notice of mental health treatment failures for years. As PLN also reported, a 2015 settlement with the federal Department of Justice resolved a suit it filed alleging deliberate indifference to the mental health needs of detainees and prisoners held at the lockup. [See: PLN, June 2018, p.60.]
Additional source: Honolulu Civil Beat
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