Family of jail detainee who committed suicide files wrongful death suit

The family of a former Barrington Hills man said it suffered more than $10 million in damages as a result of the man's 2017 suicide at the McHenry County Jail, where he was a detainee at the time.

The children and ex-wife of 51-year-old Thomas Doheny said in a wrongful death lawsuit filed Nov. 18 that overcrowding at the jail spread correctional officers too thin to notice Doheny's depressive symptoms. As a result, jail staff missed their windows of opportunity to provide lifesaving psychiatric and medical attention to the man, who officials said suffocated himself with a plastic bag in his jail cell, according to the lawsuit. Before his death, Doheny refused to let a family member post his bond and made several phone calls, during which he arranged to give away his belongings, according to the suit.

“At the time of his incarceration Thomas Doheny was exhibiting numerous symptoms of severe depression and was despondent in all ways regarding life and [the] future, complaining of physical pain and other maladies for which he was prescribed ‘aspirin,'" attorney Thomas Gooch wrote.

Gooch declined to comment further about the lawsuit, which lists the county, Sheriff Bill Prim, the jail and 12 unnamed correctional officers as defendants.

Doheny’s children, Caitlin, Megan, John and Gerald Doheny, as well as the man's ex-wife, Elizabeth Doheny, filed the complaint as executors of his estate. The lawsuit cites more than $10 million in damages from loss of child support and maintenance that Thomas Doheny would have owed through his lifetime. Thomas Doheny's children also allege to have suffered more than $5 million in the loss of the benefits of his support. Gooch additionally wrote that Thomas Doheny is owed more than $5 million in damages for his pain and suffering, as well as his final expenses. The lawsuit is seeking a judgment in an amount to be determined by a jury at a later date.

Both the McHenry County Sheriff's Office and the McHenry County State's Attorney's Office, which is listed as legal representation for the defendants, declined to comment while litigation is ongoing.

At the time of his death, Thomas Doheny was being held in contempt of court after he repeatedly failed to comply with a judge’s orders to pay fees in a recent divorce.

Elizabeth Doheny filed for divorce March 18, 2014. Throughout court proceedings, Thomas Doheny was accused of moving hundreds of thousands of dollars into a family member's bank account to make it appear as if he could not afford to pay court-ordered amounts of child support and other fees, according to motions filed in McHenry County court.

At the time of his death, Thomas Doheny would have been required to pay his ex-wife $125,000 to be released from the county jail, where he had been for more than two weeks, according to the judge’s order.

"At the time of the decedant's incarceration he had been enjoying ... a lavish lifestyle and he was subjected not to administrative incarceration or any type of suicide watch, but was instead incarcerated within the general population of the McHenry County correctional facility,” Gooch wrote.

Overcrowding at the jail, partially because of the building's function as an immigration detention center, meant there weren't enough guards on staff, and Thomas Doheny's symptomatic behavior went unnoticed, according to the lawsuit.

"Thomas Doheny’s activities within the correctional facility and particularly his telephone calls were largely ignored by the defendants and/or their subordinates," Gooch wrote.

On the day of his death, Thomas Doheny reportedly was seen removing a garbage bag from a container in a common room before returning to his cell, according to the lawsuit.

About that same time, Thomas Doheny missed a medicine call at the jail, where nurses provide inmates with their prescription medication. After about 10 minutes, staff instructed a fellow inmate to go to Thomas Doheny's cell and retrieve him. It was that inmate who found Doheny's body.

“The correctional officers rather than immediately going to Thomas Doheny’s cell, instead began a ‘lockdown’ procedure to incarcerate all inmates prior to going to Thomas Doheny’s cell," Gooch wrote.

Doheny was taken by ambulance to Northwestern Medicine Woodstock Hospital and pronounced dead at 8:53 p.m. Nov. 17, 2017, according to a news release from the McHenry County Coroner’s Office at the time.