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LANCASTER — A year after a Lancaster County man hanged himself in prison, his parents filed a lawsuit alleging that the system broke down and failed to properly protect him.
On Thanksgiving Day 2006, Joseph Keohane, 22, took his life by hanging himself from a sheet he attached to a vent grate in his Lancaster County Prison cell.
His parents, Pat and Larry Keohane, of Pequea, allege in the lawsuit that their son followed through on threats to kill himself just hours after being released from suicide watch into the prison’s general population on Nov. 23, 2006.
The suit names as defendants the county, prison warden Vincent Guarini and four other prison employees and claims they “failed to provide adequate staffing to assure safety pertaining to the care and treatment of mentally ill inmates.”
According to the suit, filed by attorney Kevin C. Allen, Keohane suffered from depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and drug dependence,and was not “thoroughly evaluated by a licensed counselor or psychiatrist to offer counseling.”
The seven-count lawsuit seeks in excess of $150,000 per count plus punitive damages, interest, costs and attorney’s fees.