Federal appeals court reinstates lawsuit by parents of prisoner who committed suicide

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(01-14) 18:29 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court reinstated a lawsuit Thursday against a Contra Costa County health worker who allegedly took a mentally ill jail inmate off suicide watch before the man hanged himself in his cell.

Robert Clouthier's parents can go to trial with their claim that Nancy Blush, a mental health specialist at the jail in Martinez, was deliberately indifferent to his medical needs, said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The 3-0 ruling reversed a federal judge's dismissal of the damage suit.

Clouthier, 29, was arrested in July 2005 after arguing with his father, destroying a china cabinet and jumping through a plate glass window at his parents' Walnut Creek home, the court said.

Clouthier was booked on suspicion of battery and vandalism and told a jail health worker he was suicidal. The worker learned that Clouthier had repeatedly tried to kill himself, most recently two months earlier, so she put him in a safety cell under close observation and had him wear a stiff "suicide smock" that can't be made into a noose.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/14/BAN81BIFO5.DTL