The third suicide by hanging at a Cochise County jail in six years is the subject of a wrongful death lawsuit filed earlier this month against Sheriff Mark Dannels, but this time a jury will also be asked to decide if the county’s health department was negligent in the treatment provided to a mentally ill inmate.
Jerral P. Mathis’s wrongful death and medical malpractice complaint is related to the Sept. 12, 2018 death of his son Clay Wallace Mathis, who suffered an anoxic brain injury after hanging himself a day earlier at the county jail in Bisbee. The lawsuit comes after county officials rejected a one-million dollar claim filed by the father in March in hopes of settling the matter without litigation.
According to the lawsuit, Clay Mathis had a documented history of mental illness at the time he was booked into jail Aug. 10 for allegedly stealing his father’s car and wallet. He was later indicted by a county grand jury on felony charges of driving under the influence while on a restricted license and possession of methamphetamine.
Jerral Mathis contends Dannels and Cochise County failed in their duty to provide adequate care to pre-trial inmates like his son. The lawsuit also contends that on Sept. 11, Clay Mathis was housed in an “unsupervised” cell containing a bedsheet and tie-off points even though he had been on suicide watch at other times.
Jail personnel found the younger Mathis unresponsive in his cell with the sheet around his neck. It was his 31st birthday.
Clay Mathis was transported to Copper Queen Hospital in Bisbee and then Banner UMC in Tucson while the sheriff’s office obtained a court order releasing him from custody. The order ended the county’s responsibly for Mathis’ medical care and the costs associated with that care.
Court records show Clay Mathis died Sept. 12 without regaining consciousness.
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Dannels and Cochise County will be represented by Daryl Audilett on behalf of the Arizona Counties Insurance Pool. Audilett acknowledged the defendants are aware of the lawsuit, even though service hasn’t been affected yet.
“We believe that we handled Mr. Mathis’ incarceration appropriately,” Audilett said Thursday. “We look forward to proving that to a jury at trial.”
Civil rights attorneys Joel Robbins and David Don are representing Jerral Mathis. Don wouldn’t comment directly on the Mathis case, but said lawsuits are often the only way to improve the operation of jails.
“A sheriff’s job is to operate the jail with care, custody, and control for everyone’s safety- that of the staff, the incarcerated citizens, and for the community at large,” Don said. “When citizens die in jail because they lack access to life-sustaining medical treatment, the sheriff has failed to do his job, and he’s broken the law.”
A jury trial is expected to occur in early 2021.
Audilett also represented the sheriff in January when a jury found Dannels not liable for the 2015 suicide by hanging of Reynaldo Amaya. That jury didn’t hear testimony about Mathis’ death.
The third known jail suicide by hanging involved inmate Wayne LeFurgey who died in 2013. His family also filed a wrongful death lawsuit, but the case settled prior to trial in exchange for a financial payout.