EAST ST. LOUIS — An estate administrator is suing jail officials, citing alleged failure to protect, insufficient measures taken to prevent injuries, violation of civil rights and wrongful death.
Dwayne White, as administrator of the estate of Bradley C. Scarpi, filed a complaint on May 20 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois against St. Clair County Sheriff Richard Watson, Major Phillip McLaurin, St. Clair County, Officer Mark J. Harris, Sergeant Brian D. Cunningham, Officer Rodney Wilson, Officer Christopher Lanzante, Lieutenant Nancy Sutherlin, Sergeant David Nichols, Officer Thomas Mesey, Officer Dante S. Beattie, Officer Patrick Fulton, Officer Howard Kurtz, Officer Nicole Liebig and Officer Steven J. Frierdich, alleging that they allegedly violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that, on April 10, 2014, Scarpi was arrested and taken to the St. Clair County Jail. Sometime during his incarceration, the suit says, Scarpi informed jail officials that other detainees were threatening him and a sergeant responded by punishing him and placing him in a maximum security cell block. Approximately five hours after being re-housed, jail officials found him hanging in his cell, and he died hours later in a hospital, the suit says. The plaintiff holds the defendants responsible because the defendants allegedly failed to take any efforts to protect or appropriately supervise him and encouraged him to kill himself.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks award for compensatory damages, attorneys' fees and costs, punitive damages against each defendant and for such other relief as the court may deem just and proper. He is represented by LaToya M. Berry of Law Offices of LaToya M. Berry in Belleville and Locke E. Bowman, Sheila A. Bedi, David M. Shapiro and Vanessa del Valle of Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois case number 3:16-cv-00560