The parents and young daughter of a 36-year-old man who killed himself while detained in the basement of a southeast Washington courthouse have filed an $8.5 million claim, alleging Kyle Lara's body wasn't discovered for 18 hours and that officials "twice served food to Mr. Lara's corpse."
"This is the worst case I have ever seen," said Ryan Dreveskracht, the family's Seattle attorney, also a member of the state agency responsible for establishing standards and certification guidelines for Washington correction officers.
The conditions of Lara's Garfield County Courthouse confinement, Dreveskracht said, "are intolerable in any civilized society."
The family's claim, filed Wednesday, alleges county officials erred in placing the distraught Lara in solitary confinement and provided wildly insufficient supervision, leading to the man's death. The county has 60 days to answer the claim, after which the family intends to file a civil-rights lawsuit.
Lara had been booked into the jail on suspicion of domestic violence March 23 after deputies arrested him over a fight with his girlfriend.
County officials chose to place him in a dingy solitary-confinement cell in the basement of the courthouse, which was built in 1901, disregarding concerns he might hurt himself, according to the claim.
Lara had expressed "suicidal ideation" after he had gotten into an altercation with another person in the jail and punched a wall, breaking bones in his hand, the claim says. He had also made similar statements during previous bookings, according to the claim.
Dreveskracht cited federal precedent stating that housing potentially suicidal people in isolation cells "is like throwing gasoline on a fire," and documents from the claim reference data showing half of prison and jail suicides occur among a "single-digit percentage" of people kept in solitary confinement.
Garfield County Sheriff Drew Hyer didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment Thursday.
Lara's family and their lawyer claim he died because of a lax monitoring system.
While the county's jail policy calls for frequent interaction with people detained there and increased supervision of those in solitary confinement, the claim alleges that the jail is not staffed by corrections officers.
Instead, according to the claim, dispatchers who are not commissioned law enforcement officers are tasked with monitoring the jail and its 20 cameras.
Dreveskracht said that alleged practice violates state law.
The claim also alleges that the county's dispatchers, who often work alone, are required to "monitor, serve meals, and administer medication" to people in jail, in addition to standard duties like answering 911 calls, dispatching deputies and firefighters, and entering warrants and protection orders into the court system.
The claim alleges the county had no policies instructing dispatchers on how often they were to conduct "video safety checks" or telling them what to do if something seemed amiss. Instead, county officials told dispatchers to use their "common sense" and call one of the county's four deputies if they need to check on someone in the jail, the claim says.
Dreveskracht said such a video-check policy is "explicitly prohibited by federal law."
"Under the law, all pretrial detainees have a right to direct-view safety checks," he said. "That doesn't happen at the Garfield County Jail and Kyle Lara died as a result."
The claim states that Lara had been difficult in the weeks following his arrest, threatening dispatchers who brought him food and blocking the view of the camera in his cell.
During the afternoon of April 13, Lara again was said to be "out of control," yelling threats, according to the claim. In response, the claim alleges, Undersheriff Calvin Dansereau threatened to send him to Walla Walla State Penitentiary, where Lara had previously served time and where he feared for his life.
A suicide note found in his cell stated, in part, that the county "was trying to kill him by putting him back to Walla Walla."
That evening, around 8 p.m., video shows Lara erecting a white sheet to block the view of the camera and then "working" the web strap that held a wall-mounted television in place. According to the claim, jail protocol is that if someone uses bedding to block the view of a cell camera, the dispatcher is supposed to contact that person via intercom and, if necessary, contact a deputy if the behavior continues.
The claim alleges the dispatcher, who came on duty at 9 p.m. and would have seen the barrier, either ignored this behavior or "abdicated his duty" by not seeing it at all.
Around 11 that night, Lara killed himself in the shower area of the cell, according to medical reports. According to a State Patrol report on Lara's death, the basement cell camera is pointed away from the bathroom and shower area out of privacy concerns.
The next morning, the same dispatcher "served breakfast to Kyle's corpse," leaving the tray in a slot in the cell's door, according to the claim. The next dispatcher on duty also should have seen the sheet, but did not report it or check on Lara, the claim alleges. That afternoon, around 1:30 p.m., she brought his lunch, leaving the food tray on top of his uneaten breakfast, the claim says.
It wasn't until nearly 5 p.m. on April 14 that another dispatcher noticed the uneaten meals and called into the cell. When Lara didn't respond, a deputy was called to enter the cell, where Lara's body was found.
"This never should have been allowed to happen," said David Lara, his father. "As a parent to a young man with addiction issues, sometimes I prayed that my son would get picked up because he is safer in jail than on the streets."
David Lara said he "trusted the system," but that his "trust has been betrayed."
"Now all I can hope for is some semblance of accountability," he said.
Kyle Lara's mother, Rhonda Lara, said her son had problems, but "he deserved to be treated with dignity and respect."
"He didn't get either," she said. "The county served two meals to his dead body. How am I going to tell his daughter that?"
