Inmate suicide case closed

Unclear if settlement reached in lawsuit over Beckwith’s death

The federal judge who was to preside over a civil trial in June involving the suicide death of an inmate in the Blair County Prison has marked the case closed.

U.S. District Judge Stephanie L. Haines in January issued a lengthy opinion in which she cleared the way for a trial in the case brought by the grandmother of a 23-year-old inmate, Samantha Beckwith, who died by suicide on Oct. 24, 2016, in her cell at the county prison.

More than four years ago, Beckwith's grandmother, Deborah A. Beckwith, the administrator of her estate, filed a civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Johnstown on behalf of her granddaughter's two young children.

The defendants included Blair County, the Blair County Prison and two of its top officials and PrimeCare Medical Inc. of Harrisburg, the firm hired by the county to provide medical services for inmates.

Attorneys involved in the case included George Kontos and Katie Killion of Pittsburgh, representing the Beckwith estate, Suzanne B. Merrick of Pittsburgh for the county and John R. Ninosky of Harrisburg for PrimeCare.

The attorneys, who late last year requested the case be tried in 2022, were instructed to file pretrial statements by May, followed by jury selection and the start of the trial on June 6.

However, Haines, in an order filed last Friday, reported that the attorneys requested the case to be dismissed and that all the parties were to bear their own legal fees.

Haines in her order then dismissed the case, and it was marked "closed" by the clerk's office.

When contacted, attorneys Kontos and Merrick refused any comment on the case. Ninosky was unavailable for comment.

The lawsuit involved a federal civil rights claim focusing on Beckwith's death, charging that PrimeCare employees and prison officials were "deliberately indifferent" to Samantha Beckwith's mental health history when she was admitted to the prison in early October 2016 for a parole violation.

She was considered a pretrial detainee.

The lawsuit contended that PrimeCare and prison officials were well aware of Samantha Beckwith's mental health situation.

The young mother between May 24, 2012, and March 16, 2016, had been an inmate in the prison 10 times -- for periods lasting only a few days to nine months.

Over that period, she was placed on suicide watch seven times.

In October 2016, screenings by a prison employee and an employee of PrimeCare indicated Beckwith was showing signs of distress and a need "to talk to someone."

Yet the employees did not recommend she be placed on suicide watch.

A corrections officer took action to place Beckwith on suicide watch following an episode in the prison.

But another officer had her removed and placed back in her prison cell.

It was after that incident that she committed suicide, according to the facts uncovered in preparation for trial.

In her January opinion, Haines rejected arguments by the defendants to dismiss the lawsuit.

"Deliberate indifference to a prisoner's serious medical needs constitutes 'unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain' and states a cause of action (under federal civil rights laws)," Haines wrote in her opinion.

She went on to say that "a particular vulnerability to suicide is one type of serious medical need to which prison officials may not be deliberately indifferent."

Haines then ruled that the record of the case contained evidence "by which a reasonable juror could find that Samantha had a particular vulnerability to suicide."

"The Court is satisfied that there is sufficient evidence in the ... record by which a reasonable juror could conclude that PrimeCare acted with deliberate or reckless indifference to Samantha Beckwith's particular vulnerability to suicide."

She also addressed what she noted were possible deficiencies in the (Blair County Prison) suicide prevention policy.

"The Court finds that there is sufficient record evidence by which a reasonable juror could conclude that the County defendants had a deficient policy, which permitted corrections officers to remove a detainee from suicide watch without a mental health evaluation, and did not provide for clear communication between corrections officers and medical staff."

In commenting on the Beckwith case, Haines mentioned another inmate suicide case from the Johnstown court, which was settled last year.

It involved the death of Brandon Palakovic, who was found dead in a cell in the former Cresson State Correctional Institution.

That case was settled out of court for $675,000.

The attorneys in the Beckwith case would not confirm a settlement had been reached but only noted that the case had been dismissed.