Lake County to pay $2 million over Santa Rosa woman's jail suicide

Lake County has agreed to pay $2 million to a man who sued after his mother killed herself in jail a day after she was arrested for being under the influence of drugs.|
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAKEPORT - Lake County has agreed to pay $2 million to a man who sued after his mother killed herself in jail a day after she was arrested for being under the influence of drugs.

A spokesman for the son, Dane Shikman, disclosed the settlement on Thursday. Shikman filed a federal lawsuit alleging his mother, Santa Rosa resident Elizabeth Gaunt, was left in a Lake County jail sobering cell in 2015 without being evaluated by a doctor, even though she was hallucinating.

The suit says a nurse who last saw the 56-year-old woman documented her psychosis but failed to contact a doctor as required.

The county counsel's office said it had no comment about the settlement. In court documents, the county rejected the claim that officials were deliberately indifferent to Gaunt's medical needs.

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