Lieberenz v. Wilson et al.
Before Jackson Maes died by suicide in a jail cell, jail officials saw him repeatedly and violently strike his head against a cell wall and heard him say he was trying to kill himself. They still failed to put him on suicide watch or obtain the mental health treatment he needed. The MacArthur Justice Center is fighting to ensure that qualified immunity does not shield jail and prison officials from being held accountable for their often-dangerous indifference toward prisoners’ health and safety.
Mr. Maes was arrested in Saguache County, Colorado, for failure to appear in court for a traffic offense. While in jail, he appeared intoxicated, violently struck his head against the jail wall as jail officials watched, and told officials that he was trying to kill himself. Several officials commented on the need to do something. But none of them actually secured mental health care, placed him on suicide watch, or properly monitored him and, ultimately, Mr. Maes hung himself in his cell.
Mr. Maes’s mother, Sarah Lieberenz, brought a civil action against the Board of County Commissioners, the Saguache County Sheriff’s Office, the Sheriff, and four individual defendants who were working at the jail that day. Several claims against the County defendants and one of the four officers will proceed to trial. The claims against the remaining three officers are at issue on appeal: The district court denied qualified immunity to one of them, Officer Wilson, and granted it to two others, Officers Wells and Shields. Officer Wilson appealed, and Ms. Lieberenz cross-appealed as to Officer Wells and Shields.
The MacArthur Justice Center is representing Ms. Lieberenz on appeal to ensure that qualified immunity does not stand in the way of holding these three officers accountable for their profound failures to get Mr. Maes the help he needed.
UPDATE
On June 12, 2024, the appellate court affirmed the district court’s denial of qualified immunity to Officer Wilson! In so holding, the court explained that Officer Wilson was on notice that “to the extent he had subjective knowledge of a substantial risk that Mr. Maes would commit suicide, he was obligated to do something to address Mr. Maes’s serious medical needs” and that a reasonable jury could conclude that Officer Wilson nonetheless “took no steps to protect Mr. Maes.”