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Maine’s top state court has dismissed an appeal brought by Hancock County officials in a lawsuit over the 2018 death of a jail inmate.
The lawsuit was filed in 2020 after Monica J. Johnson attempted suicide at Hancock County Jail in Ellsworth. Johnson, who was taken off life support at a Bangor hospital days after the suicide attempt, had been arrested two weeks earlier as part of an alleged drug bust in Bucksport.
With the ruling by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, the lawsuit, filed by Johnson’s husband, Stewart Carney, and her estate, is expected to move forward in federal court. It alleges that jail staff violated Johnson’s rights by failing to provide her adequate medical and mental health care while she was incarcerated.
In the court complaint, Carney alleges that Johnson, who was 38 at the time, was suffering from depression and anxiety and that she had urgently asked to speak with a psychiatrist while incarcerated at the jail. She had suffered a traumatic brain injury about 18 months before she died and had previously been hospitalized for mental illness, Carney wrote.
Hancock County officials went to state court to seek dismissal of the claims, but their request was denied by a judge in Penobscot County. The county then appealed that decision to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, which last week upheld the lower court decision.
In its appeal to the high court, county officials argued that they are not subject to the Maine Health Security Act, which lays out standards for health care providers and practitioners. They also argued that, as government officials, they are immune from civil liability under the Maine Tort Claims Act.
The high court upheld the lower-court denial of the motion to dismiss, saying that the issue of whether the county officials are subject to the Maine Health Security Act is not “immediately appealable,” and that the pending federal lawsuit would determine whether the officials are immune from civil liability.
Attorneys representing each side in the lawsuit did not respond Tuesday to messages seeking comment about the Law Court ruling.
