Bucks County to pay $300K to settle wrongful death lawsuit filed by family of jail inmate
The Bucks County Commissioners have agreed to pay more than $300,000 to settle claims in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a Bensalem man who died by suicide while incarcerated in 2018.
The family of Charles Freitag Sr. has also reached a separate settlement with PrimeCare Medical, the private, for-profit health care company contracted to provide medical and mental health services at the Doylestown jail. The details of that payout have not been released.
This news organization was not immediately successful Thursday in reaching attorney Jonathan Feinberg, who represented the family, for comment.
The settlement is the second Bucks County has reached this year in a wrongful death lawsuit involving its jail, where five inmates have died in the last 12 months. Four of those deaths were ruled suicides.
The commissioners unanimously approved the $337,000 settlement at its meeting Wednesday; insurance will reimburse the county.
Freitag, 57, was a first-time offender with a history of suicide attempts, major depression, and inpatient psychiatric hospitalizations when he killed himself in his cell the day after he sentenced to 6 to 12 years in state prison. He was convicted of aggravated assault for driving his pickup truck into his ex-wife's house in 2017.
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At the time of his death, Freitag was not on a suicide watch, though his family contends he showed clear signs of increasing mental distress in the weeks before his sentencing. The county and PrimeCare medical contended in court filings that Freitag repeatedly denied he was suicidal and corrections staff were unaware of his mental health history.
This news organization has filed a Right to Know request with the county seeking a complete copy of the settlement along with any records of settlement claims in its possession involving PrimeCare Medical for the case.
The settlement is the fourth wrongful death lawsuit the county and PrimeCare have settled since 2015, at a cost of about $1.75 million, records show. At least one more lawsuit involving a 2018 inmate death is pending in federal court.
Earlier this year the county and PrimeCare paid more than $1 million to settle another lawsuit with the family of Frederick Adami, 52, a father of five who died less than one day after he was incarcerated on a bench warrant in January 2018. Adami died as a result of complications related to opiate withdrawal.
The county paid $625,000 to settle its claims and PrimeCare settled for $750,000, according to court documents the Adami family provided.
Adami’s family alleged the county and PrimeCare Medical failed to properly monitor and treat Adami despite signs of worsening medical distress. They also contended the county failed to address known weaknesses with its treatment and monitoring policies and practices for inmates experiencing substance withdrawal, despite prior deaths.
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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Bucks County settles lawsuit in suicide death of jail inmate
