Harvey v. County of Ward.

• Position: Suicide case - Brief Article

U.S. District Court

SUICIDE

Harvey v. County of Ward, 352 F.Supp.2d 1003 (D.N.D. 2005). The surviving spouse of a jail inmate who died after a suicide attempt brought an action under [section] 1983 and state law, alleging deliberate indifference to the inmate's known risk of suicide. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants. The district court held that the plaintiff failed to establish that the sheriff and jail administrator knew of the inmate's potential risk of suicide. According to the court, evidence of conversations between the spouse and jail employees about the inmate's suicide risk, an officer's note that the inmate's wife thought that they should keep an eye on the inmate, and another officer's report that the inmate may have been trying to save up some of his medications to take at another time, was insufficient to establish that the sheriff and jail administrator knew of the inmate's potential risk of suicide...