Montgomery County Correctional Facility
PHILADELPHIA - Montgomery County has agreed to settle a wrongful death lawsuit over an inmate's suicide for $1 million.
Lawyers representing the Estate of Elliot Glantz filed a petition for approval of the agreement on July 1 in Philadelphia federal court, where the case has been pending for nearly three years. Glantz suffered from drug abuse and depression and hanged himself on Sept. 29, 2020 at the age of 30.
He was in Montgomery County Correctional Facility on a parole violation. Also settling is PrimeCare Medical, which was hired by Montgomery County to provide psychiatric and mental health services to MCCF prisoners.
PrimeCare's portion of the settlement is redacted, but the firm Eisenberg, Rothweiler, Winkler, Eisenberg & Jeck is taking $760,000, which represents 40% of the total settlements. That would mean PrimeCare settled for $900,000, on top of Montgomery County's $1 million.
Glantz had a history that included ADHD, depression and bipolar disorder, and PrimeCare in 2018 noted suicide risk factors like major depression and prior attempts, the suit says.
When a parole violation sent him to Montgomery County Correctional Facility in September 2020, he denied any mental health problems, claiming later he did so because he was high on methamphetamines. The suit says MCCF failed to question him.
Days went by before he was seen by a doctor for a mental health appointment, at which point a doctor referred him to a psychiatrist. No medication was ordered, and a Sept. 28 appointment was canceled, the suit says.
He called a friend to tell him he was scared, having nightmares and would rather be "in the cold" than at MCCF. His body was discovered the morning of Sept. 29, 2020.
The complaint charges Montgomery County and PrimeCare with knowing of their past failures to treat prisoners like Glantz, and cites a few lawsuits through the years.
"Despite numerous and repeated inmate suicides and suicide attempts over the years, the County and PrimeCare failed to create, implement and/or enforce the necessary policies and customs to protect civil rights of MCCF prisoners, thereby establishing a custom of violating civil rights of those within their custody and control," the suit says.
Todd Schoenhaus of the Eisenberg firm represented the plaintiff. Glantz had no wife or children, and his parents will receive more than $1.1 million.
