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Sen. Creigh Deeds files $6 million lawsuit over son's death
Sen. Creigh Deeds files $6 million lawsuit over son's death
Posted: Tuesday, January 5, 2016 1:00 pm
BY GRAHAM MOOMAW Richmond Times-Dispatch
gmoomaw@timesdispatch.com
(804) 649-6839
@gmoomaw
Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, has filed a wrongful death and medical-malpractice lawsuit against the state and a Lexington-based mental health facility claiming that his son, Austin "Gus" Deeds, was improperly denied treatment before attacking his father with a knife and fatally shooting himself in 2013.
The lawsuit, filed in November in Bath Circuit Court, names as defendants the state, the Rockbridge Area Community Services Board and Michael Gentry, a mental health worker who evaluated and tended to Gus Deeds the day before the Nov. 19 attack. The suit seeks $5 million in compensatory damages, and $1 million in punitive damages against Gentry.
"Virginia's mental health care system failed my son, Gus," Deeds said in a statement released by his attorneys. "I am committed that my son's needless death shall not be in vain, and that no other Virginia family suffer this tragedy."
The suit, filed on behalf of the estate of Gus Deeds and first reported by The Rockbridge Advocate, claims Gentry and the RACSB "breached their duties to Gus" by releasing him after failing to find a psychiatric bed in the area. The filing says both Creigh Deeds and Pamela Miller Mayhew, the mother of Gus Deeds, warned Gentry of the potential for violence.
....
Staff writer Michael Martz contributed to this report.
Posted: Tuesday, January 5, 2016 1:00 pm
BY GRAHAM MOOMAW Richmond Times-Dispatch
gmoomaw@timesdispatch.com
(804) 649-6839
@gmoomaw
Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, has filed a wrongful death and medical-malpractice lawsuit against the state and a Lexington-based mental health facility claiming that his son, Austin "Gus" Deeds, was improperly denied treatment before attacking his father with a knife and fatally shooting himself in 2013.
The lawsuit, filed in November in Bath Circuit Court, names as defendants the state, the Rockbridge Area Community Services Board and Michael Gentry, a mental health worker who evaluated and tended to Gus Deeds the day before the Nov. 19 attack. The suit seeks $5 million in compensatory damages, and $1 million in punitive damages against Gentry.
"Virginia's mental health care system failed my son, Gus," Deeds said in a statement released by his attorneys. "I am committed that my son's needless death shall not be in vain, and that no other Virginia family suffer this tragedy."
The suit, filed on behalf of the estate of Gus Deeds and first reported by The Rockbridge Advocate, claims Gentry and the RACSB "breached their duties to Gus" by releasing him after failing to find a psychiatric bed in the area. The filing says both Creigh Deeds and Pamela Miller Mayhew, the mother of Gus Deeds, warned Gentry of the potential for violence.
....
Staff writer Michael Martz contributed to this report.
The Rockbridge Advocate
