Suicide in Todd County Jail

This article was published in the Long Prairie Leader in January of this year. I've had a couple of calls about it so I thought I'd republish it here. My notes regarding what I've learned are at the end of the article.

Tim
Central Minnesota Political 

Who is responsible for the death of Brett Huber Jr?

Just over a month ago, in the December 19 issue of the Leader, the front page headline was: “County to pay out $1.8 million in settlement”. Immediately below the headline was a photo of a jail inmate, his back to the camera, making a noose to hang himself. It was a horrifying image. I’ll not forget it.

Jason Brown, who wrote the article, did his homework regarding the huge financial settlement. He reported that a mentally ill man named Brett Huber Jr. hung himself in the Todd County jail. Jason’s reporting made it clear that Huber was a danger to himself and to others due to his crazy behavior. While he was in jail, Huber even tried to drown himself. Even though he tried to kill himself and was, allegedly, hallucinating, a nurse employed by Todd County visited with Huber and reported that there were “zero concerns”. Furthermore, Jason reported that Huber killed himself while he was under administrative segregation. That means that he was under 24 hour video surveillance but, Jason wrote, the jail staff was too busy to regularly monitor the video.  

While the jailers were not watching Brett Huber Jr., he made a noose from bed linens and hung himself.

Another young man killed himself in the Todd County jail in the late 1980s. His family sued the County and won a large financial settlement due to negligence by Sheriff’s Department staff. Jason Brown writes that there was another death in the jail in May of 2017.  Then there is Brett Huber Jr.

The 1980s suicide involved the heckling of a young inmate by a jailer. Jason reports that the 2017 death may have been due to the jailer’s failure to do the required cell checks. He reports that the Minnesota Department of Corrections told Sheriff Don Asmus that his staff was recording cell checks that didn’t actually occur. Sheriff Asmus may or may not have taken action about his staff falsely recording cell checks in 2017. If he did it wasn’t enough. They recorded, but didn’t make, a cell check at 1:31 p.m. on June 9, 2018 when Brett Huber Jr. killed himself. 

Who is responsible for the death of Brett Huber Jr.? Surely the jailers are for not doing the required cell checks on a mentally unbalanced and suicidal inmate. The lawsuit filed by Huber’s family names the Jail Administrator. He supervised the cheating jailers as well as the nurse that inaccurately diagnosed Huber. But the buck shouldn’t stop with the Jail Administrator.

The jail is ultimately the responsibility of the Sheriff. The Department of Corrections wrote to Sheriff Asmus after the jail death in 2017. Asmus had a year to address the matter of false cell checks. Whatever he did wasn’t good enough.

Todd County officials seem unable to learn from their tragic and vastly expensive mistakes. Sheriff Asmus has retired but I thought I’d contact newly elected Sheriff Och. He was a road deputy when the two deaths happened so he bears no responsibility for them. But he’s responsible for cleaning up after Asmus and for making sure somebody else doesn’t die in the jail. So I emailed him a number of questions, including this one:

“There have been a number of deaths and suicides in Todd County over the years. Two of them happened under the most recent Sheriff. What have you done, and what are you going to do, to assure that there are no deaths in the Todd County jail on your watch?”

Sheriff Och politely wrote back:

“Good morning Tim, all question regarding Mr. Huber’s case are being directed to Jason Hiveley who was the attorney who handled this case for Todd County. You can contact Jason by email and he can respond to your inquiries.”

So I sent my questions to Attorney Hiveley. He wrote back:

“Todd County and the Minnesota Counties Intergovernmental Trust agreed to pay $1.8 million to Brett Huber’s estate in exchange for a dismissal of this lawsuit. There was no admission of wrongdoing and no non-monetary terms were included. However, in an effort to prevent a tragedy like this from occurring again, the Todd County Jail will be reviewing and updating their policies and procedures and staff will be attending additional training.”  

So, who is going to be trained here? The Sheriff? He can read letters from the Department of Corrections now. The Jail Administrator? He knew his staff was breaking the rules. The jailers? They know the rules. Maybe the nurse?

So, a young man needlessly dies and Todd County taxpayers pay out $1.8 million and our elected officials get to hide behind our expensive lawyer. Incredible!

I have one other thought about responsibility. The Department of Corrections said that the jail is understaffed. Has the Sheriff, along with the County Commissioners who set his budget, made it impossible for the jailers to do their job? Saving money by not hiring more jailers is just setting Todd County up for another expensive tragedy.
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Notes: A caller told me I was wrong about Sheriff Och. At the time of Brett Huber's suicide he was Todd county's Under Sheriff. I believe that is the second in command in the Sheriff's office. To that extent Och is culpable for Brett Huber's death. 

The caller, a former Todd County Social Worker, pointed out that each medical treatment, including mental health, is paid for directly from the Sheriff's budget. In other words, not treating Brett Huber was good for the Sheriff's budget. The caller said that the decision not to treat Huber likely came from high up the departmental hierarch.

Finally, the caller said that at the time of Huber's death a young man who worked briefly as a jailor at Todd County posted a Face Book posting. He wrote that the work environment at the jail was cruel. He wrote that he was criticized for doing the smallest kindnesses for the inmates. The summary of the posting seemed to suggest that inmates were treated as subhuman.

- Tim