Estate of Rosa Bonilla v. Orange County, No. 19-41039 (5th Cir. 2020)
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The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment to defendants in an action brought by the estate of Rosa Bonilla, a woman who committed suicide while in custody. In regard to the episodic acts or omissions claims, the court was reluctant to hold that generalized evidence of an inmate's mental illness invariably indicates a substantial risk of self harm. In this case, the circumstances of Bonilla's arrest, booking, and detention did not raise questions concerning her mental stability or capacity for self-harm; she had no suicidal tendencies; and evidence indicates that Bonilla did not request medical help, and her behavior in detention was unremarkable prior to her suicide. Therefore, the evidence did not give rise to reasonable inferences that the individual defendants were aware of Bonilla's suicidal tendency, much less that they disregarded the risk. Furthermore, plaintiffs' episodic acts or omission claim would fail because Defendants Dickerson and Shafer are entitled to qualified immunity.
In regard to claims against Orange County, the court concluded that the record does not support plaintiffs' theory that Orange County has a pervasive policy or custom of allowing detainees to self-classify their risk of self-harm. The court also concluded that there was no policy or custom of unreasonably delaying prescriptions. In this case, a jury would have to resort to impermissible speculation to conclude that there was a "direct causal link" between the alleged constitutional violation—defendants' failure to distribute Xanax to Bonilla during her 10-hour stay—and her death.
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