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| Suit filed in death of inmate |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 05/10/2004 |
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The family of a mentally ill inmate who died in an Ontario, Oregon, prison has sued the state and almost a dozen prison officers. Billy Owens, 45, died on April 29, 2002, after erupting into a fit at the end of his 10th week in the disciplinary segregation unit at the Snake River Correctional Institution. The lawsuit was filed last Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Portland. It was a day before the two-year statute of limitations on federal civil rights lawsuits expired. Owens, who had schizophrenia, stabbed himself in the neck with a pen, prompting officers to pepper spray him, according a report reviewing his death by the Oregon Advocacy Center. Five officers in riot gear then dragged him out of his cell and restrained him. Owens eventually stopped breathing, the report says. As Owens lay dying, a nurse kissed an officer and prison staff laughed and chatted, according to a Department of Corrections review of a security video from the unit. Someone asked for a round of applause for the person trying to revive Owens. An Oregon State Police investigation determined Owens' death by asphyxiation was an accident. John Lambert of Burns, the family's attorney, told The Oregonian he hopes the suit leads to better treatment of the mentally ill in the state's prisons, including how they're punished for bad behavior. Perrin Damon, a Department of Corrections spokeswoman, said prison officials have not seen the suit and would not comment. Owens was serving 12 years for trying to kill his grandmother during a bout of psychosis. The lawsuit says his treatment in prison amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. Disciplinary segregation, where prisoners spend 23 hours a day isolated with limited possessions, only exacerbated his symptoms, the suit contends. Moreover, the lawsuit contends that the correctional officers were too slow to give him medical attention once they realized he had stopped breathing. The family seeks unspecified economic, noneconomic and punitive damages. |
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