David Yearby's mother filed suit Tuesday against Middlesex County, Piscataway police and employees at the Middlesex County jail, charging they are responsible for causing their son's death while he was in custody in November.
NEW BRUNSWICK -- David Yearby's mother filed suit Tuesday against Middlesex County, Piscataway police and employees at the Middlesex County jail, charging they are responsible for causing their son's death while he was in custody in November.
The 23-page complaint, filed by Veronica Yearby in Middlesex County Court, charges it was the treatment he received at the jail that caused the broken neck that led to his death.
Yearby's attorney, Gregg Zeff, said the defendants deprived Yearby of his civil rights under the N.J. Constitution.
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"This case involves the tragic and avoidable death of David Eric Yearby," the lawsuit said. "David's mental health condition was treated by defendants as a crime, punishable by death."
Yearby, 27, disappeared from the apartment he shared with his brother on Oct. 31, 2014, according to the complaint.
He suffered from a mental condition that required medical treatment, the lawsuit said, adding when his family discovered he was arrested by Piscataway police for assaulting two officers, his family was relieved.
The lawsuit states David's sister notified police about his condition and the need for mental health treatment, but "instead of treatment, they took him to (the county jail)."
"No one at the Piscataway Police Department informed officials at (the county jail) of Yearby's mental condition or need for mental health attention," the lawsuit said.
The complaint said at the time of the transfer to the county jail Yearby "possessed full function of his arms and shoulders" and had "not suffered a cervical fracture or spinal cord injury."
The complaint attributed the facts used for what happened at the jail to the investigative report provided by the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office, which investigated Yearby's death for four months.
No criminal charges were filed in the case.
The complaint said Yearby was disruptive, attempting to clog his toilet on Nov. 1 and refusing to leave his cell when maintenance arrived to fix it. A special extraction team of officers removed him from the cell for medical treatment, but found no weakness in his upper arms or legs.
He was placed in an inmate restraint chair.
According to the lawsuit, the manufacturer's guide explicitly restricts inmates' time to be spent in the chair to two hours, but Yearby was confined in the chair for nine hours with regular monitoring by officers and medical staff.
At 3:23 a.m. on Nov. 2, Yearby was unresponsive to verbal commands and the medical staff was notified, the lawsuit states.
He was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy found the cause of death was "blunt force trauma of head and neck with cervical fracture and spinal cord injury."
Sue Epstein may be reached at sepstein@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @susan_epstein. Find NJ.com on Facebook.