Opinion ID: 2720362
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Defendant Escorsio

Text: On the morning of Monday, October 5, Officer Heath, who was at that time the on-duty intake officer, documented in KCJ’s intake/release log and in Lalli’s welfare-watch log that: “while moving inmate Wood, inmate Matthew Lalli told me that he has sole custody of his daughter and that if he were not allowed to be on the outside then it would be better if he wasn’t alive at all.” At 12:07 p.m., KCJ’s intake/release log indicates Defendant Escorsio took over for Heath as intake officer. Between noon and 12:30 p.m., jail staff assembled nine detainees in the intake area to prepare them for their trip to the Knox County District Court for court appearances. The group included Lalli and several other inmates who were deposed in -7- relation to this suit. One inmate testified that Lalli began “really freaking out” before being loaded into a van for transport to the court--apparently loud enough for Defendant Escorsio to have heard. Another inmate testified that Lalli made various threats to hurt himself during the trip from the jail to the courthouse, saying “if I don't get the hell out of here I’m going to hurt myself, kill myself.” At his arraignment, Lalli told the presiding judge that “it would be all be over” and that he would “just end it” if he was denied bail. The judge nevertheless ordered that Lalli be held without bail. After the judge issued the ruling, Lalli became upset and started crying. As Lalli returned to the dock area, one witness testified, he was “screaming hysterically and crying and threatening suicide.” This witness recalled that after Lalli rejoined the other inmates, he said that he “might as well just kill himself because he [couldn’t] go back to jail” and that he was “going to lose everything.” Another inmate in the van testified that Lalli, loudly and throughout the short trip back to jail, “kept saying he was going to kill himself.” Although none of the transport officers relayed Lalli’s suicide threats to Defendant Escorsio, the district court found “one of the inmates [probably] did inform Escorsio.” At approximately 2:52 p.m., a corrections officer strip-searched Lalli. Lalli was upset after the search and began to cry. Hoping -8- to calm Lalli down, Escorsio allowed him to make a call from the phone next to the jail’s intake desk. As the call began, Escorsio heard Lalli speak about his daughter and the denial of his bail. Corporal Woll, who was also nearby, heard Lalli say that he would rather die if he did not have his daughter. At this point, Defendant Escorsio and the other officers on duty decided Lalli should be moved from Cell 135 to Cell 127, the vacant suicide prevention cell. But because a female inmate occupied Cell 126, which shares a day room with Cell 127, the officers needed to move some inmates around before putting Lalli in Cell 127. Instead of taking any precautions in the interim, however, at about 3:00 p.m. Escorsio returned Lalli to Cell 135. She did not put him in a suicide smock, nor did she take away his bedding. Escorsio then secured Lalli’s two neighboring inmates in their cells, allowing only Lalli access to the adjoining day room. Before she left the area, Escorsio told Lalli to “sit down” and “shut up” and warned him that she would bring him “up front in the turtle suit [a.k.a. suicide smock]” if he did not do as told. Next, Lalli made a call from the phone in the day room. Lalli told the person on the other end of the line that he was going to kill himself. According to the district court, Lalli then began pacing around the day room, screaming “I’m going to fing kill myself” as loud as if he were “hollering to somebody 75 yards away.” After spending about ten to fifteen minutes in the day -9- room, Lalli went into Cell 135 and closed the door. Once inside, Lalli started kicking his door, throwing things around his cell and creating a lot of commotion. Defendant Escorsio conducted another welfare check on Lalli sometime between 3:15 and 3:25 p.m. Lalli stopped making noise after this visit. Just before 3:30 p.m., Defendant Escorsio asked Corporal Woll to perform Lalli’s upcoming welfare-watch check for her. Before Woll reached Cell 135, however, he noticed a white sheet hanging from a divider pole. Woll immediately ordered the door be opened and called for assistance. Once inside, he found Lalli’s body hanging from the divider pole. Woll and another corrections officer began performing chest compressions and CPR on Lalli. Before long, paramedics arrived and removed Lalli from the cell. An ambulance rushed Lalli to Eastern Maine Medical Center, in Bangor, Maine, where doctors later diagnosed him with anoxic brain injury resulting from the suicide attempt.