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Lawsuit: Understaffing at Northumberland County jail led to murder of inmate

PENNSYLVANIA RECORD

Monday, December 23, 2024

Lawsuit: Understaffing at Northumberland County jail led to murder of inmate

Lawsuits
Brianjzeiger

Zeiger | https://brianzeiger.com/

WILLIAMSPORT - Northumberland County and the warden of its county jail are facing a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the estate of a man who died from injuries sustained in an attack.

The Estate of Chad Keefer, Sr., filed suit on Dec. 11 in Williamsport federal court against the county, warden Thomas Reisinger and unknown corrections officers. Keefer died on April 8, after being arrested for nonviolent misdemeanor offenses, the suit says.

His time in the county jail was especially dangerous, the suit claims. He was attacked by another inmate after his December 2023 arrest and subsequently asked guards for protection from that inmate.

"Defendants did not place Mr. Keefer in restricted housing or take any other measures to protect him from future attacks," the suit says.

"Instead, Defendants placed Mr. Keefer back in the general population with the inmate who had attacked him."

On Feb. 6 of this year, the same inmate again attacked Keefer with help from others. This led Keefer to be hospitalized for two months until he died, the suit says.

"Defendants were aware that Mr. Keefer was vulnerable to attack; nonetheless, Defendants took no precautions regarding Mr. Keefer's safety. Decedent was denied safety and protection from inmates who were known to be dangerous."

Keefer was 41 years old at the time of his death. The suit blames Reisinger as the final decisionmaker for the county jail's safety policy.

Reisinger also failed to ensure prison officials were properly trained, the suit says.

"Defendant Reisinger knew the Northumberland County Jail did not have a proper policy in place for inmate segregation due to violence among the grouping of inmates during the time period of both attacks on Mr. Keefer," the suit says.

Laura Zipin and Brian Zeiger of Levin & Zeiger represent the estate. They included a list of other cases against the county to show the defendants failed to act to protect inmates.

The cases include:

-Inmate suicides blamed on a proper monitoring system;

-A shower attack at the jail while guards allegedly stood and watched, which led the victim's eye to become detached;

-An alleged failure to separate two inmates despite a risk of extreme violence that led to an attack that left the victim blind in one eye; and

-An alleged attack by a guard.

"As shown by the seven prior incidents... which occurred before the assault on Mr. Keefer, Defendant Northumberland County had a custom of understaffing that is ongoing, continuous, and occurring at the time of the assault on Mr. Keefer," the suit says.

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