The lawsuit does not identify the detainee, but the Tribune has learned that it is Cathey, the subject of a front-page Tribune story three years ago about his constant swallowing of anything he could get his hands on in the county jail: screws, needles, a thumbtack, a 4-inch piece of metal. By the time the story ran in May 2015, the county said it had spent at least $1 million on his medical care.