White County jailers refused in 2016 to send a 19-year-old inmate to a hospital despite suicide attempts, a known history of psychiatric problems and the recommendations of two licensed counselors, decisions that resulted in the inmate's death by hanging, a federal wrongful death lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit was filed Nov. 5 by Bridgette Comic, who helped raise Keylan Comic after the death of his mother, who was Bridgette Comic's sister.

Keylan Comic of Bryant was found hanging from a bedsheet attached to a bed frame at the county jail in Searcy on the afternoon of Nov. 5, 2016, two hours after jailers restrained him in a common area for inmates and confined him to an isolated cell, according to the Arkansas State Police and the lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed by Little Rock attorney Austin Porter Jr., alleges that the county, then-Sheriff Ricky Shourd, jail supervisor Clayton Edwards and at least five deputies violated Comic's civil rights by being indifferent to his serious medical needs. The suit seeks compensatory damages for his pain and suffering, his medical and funeral expenses, and the mental anguish experienced by his aunt, his father, his sister and two brothers as a result of his death. It also seeks punitive damages.

On Tuesday, current Sheriff Phillip E. Miller didn't return a reporter's call, and a woman at the jail said Edwards had the day off.

State police said Keylan Comic was one of four people accused of robbing a Waffle House in Searcy in the early morning of Sept. 13, 2016, and that he was also suspected of participating in a robbery the previous night at a Waffle House in Conway.

Comic was 18 when he was arrested on Sept. 13, 2016, on an aggravated robbery charge. He turned 19 two weeks later, while he was in the jail.

According to the lawsuit, "he expressed suicidal ideations" when he arrived at the jail, and during medical intake procedures, he said he had a history of mental illness that included a bipolar diagnosis and anger management issues.

A day after being jailed, he tried to choke himself with a piece of cloth and cut his throat with a piece of plastic, and he was placed on suicide watch, according to the lawsuit. It said a licensed associate counselor responded to a crisis call at the jail over the incident, declared Comic suicidal and recommended that he be hospitalized for stabilization, that any prescribed medication be given to him in the jail and that he receive appropriate outpatient mental health treatment.

But the defendants refused to adopt the recommendations, the suit states.

It says he was taken off suicide watch on Sept. 23 and that five days later, he told a licensed professional counselor that he had tried to kill himself the day before and that he had been a patient at two psychiatric hospitals multiple times but had thrown away his medication. The counselor diagnosed Comic with major depressive disorder with psychotic features, and noted that because of his "highly excitable mood and visible wounds on throat which he self-inflicted yesterday ... I recommend referral to inpatient psych today."

The counselor also wrote that if the county didn't permit Comic's transfer to inpatient psychiatric treatment, "I recommend better in-house assessment of possible psychotropics and extremely close attention to his access to any possible weapon against himself. I also recommend chaplain services."

The crisis intervention plan was supposed to have been signed by Comic, but "the mental health professional did not trust him with a pen," the lawsuit states.

Comic was again placed on suicide watch, but he was taken off it again on Oct. 31 and placed back in the jail's general population, according to the lawsuit.

It says that on Nov. 5, he was reported out of his pod, "causing problems," at 2:09 p.m., and that jailers wrestled him into an isolation cell, where he was "extremely agitated."

"Despite knowing that Keylan Comic had a history of being suicidal, especially after becoming agitated and being punished, the defendants left Keylan in his cell alone, and did not bother to check on him until he was found hanging in his cell approximately two hours later," the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit states that two jailers administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation until paramedics arrived, and that Comic was pronounced dead at the hospital at 4:55 p.m.

The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr.

Metro on 11/13/2019