Estate of Matthew Creaton, 35, claims contracted doctors showed "deliberate indifference" to his medical needs before he took his own life in cell in February 2020.
On Feb. 11, 2020, Matthew Creaton, a 35-year-old Cranesville resident who had a drug addiction and whose family feared had just attempted suicide, was sent to the Erie County Prison after state police arrested him on a civil charge that he failed to pay child support.
Eight days later, Creaton hanged himself in his cell with a towel.
His death has prompted a federal civil rights lawsuit against the contracted medical providers at the prison. Creaton's estate claims the medical services failed to provide proper treatment for Creaton's depression and other mental health problems, ending with his suicide. The suit claims, among other things, that medical providers at the prison erred when they removed Creaton from suicide watch on Feb. 16 — three days before he killed himself.
"Matthew Creaton was as sick and as vulnerable as a person can be," according to the suit. "He fought the dual demons of addiction and severe mental illness for years and it was a fight mostly won by the demons.
"Those who suffer with these demons invariably intersect with the criminal justice system, and Matthew was tragically no exception."
The suit is the third filed in U.S. District Court in Erie since January 2019 over medical care at the Erie County Prison. The other cases do not involve suicides, but the plaintiffs in those cases are claiming the prison medical care was deficient and contributed to the deaths of their relatives, who were inmates.
One of those cases, filed by the estate of Erie resident April D. Corritore, 33, who died of an infection in 2018, appears to have been settled in February with the terms not immediately disclosed, according to court records. The other case, filed by the estate of Waterford resident Mathew Orsini, 19, who died of complications from a congenital heart condition in 2019, is still active.
The lawsuit over Creaton's death was filed on Feb. 10, with an amended complaint filed on Feb. 14. The plaintiff is Creaton's sister, Ashley Creaton, the administrator of her brother's estate. Other survivors listed in his obituary include Matthew Creaton's son.
The 27-page, three-count civil complaint claims wrongful death and also seeks to recover damages as a survival action.
The suit also claims some of the defendants violated Matthew Creaton's 14th Amendment rights to due process by acting with "deliberate indifference" to his medical needs.
Medical providers listed as defendants
The Erie County Prison is not named in the suit. Among the defendants are Wexford Health Sources Inc., a Pittsburgh-based health provider contracted to offer medical services at the Erie County Prison, and Medical Associates of Erie, a LECOM Health physician network that offers medical director services through a contract with Wexford, according to the suit.
The other defendants are Millcreek Community Hospital, another LECOM affiliate, where the suit says Creaton was treated before he was sent back to the prison; Stairways Behavioral Health, which the suit says provides mental health services at the prison under contract; and a physician and two psychiatrists.
A spokeswoman for Wexford declined to comment, saying Wexford does not comment on patient cases. A spokeswoman for Millcreek Community Hospital and Medical Associates of Erie declined to comment, citing the open litigation, as did a spokeswoman for Journey Health System of Bradford, which includes Stairways.
The defendants will get a chance to respond to the suit in court.
The plaintiff's lawyers are John Mizner and Tim George, both of Erie. U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard A. Lanzillo is assigned the case.
An attempted suicide, and prison
The ordeal that ended with Matthew Creaton's suicide started on Feb. 11, 2020, according to the suit. It says Creaton's other sister found him unresponsive on the floor of his residence in Cranesville, "apparently from an attempted suicide via drug overdose."
The sister revived Creaton and called state police. Creaton was uncooperative with the troopers who arrived. They arrested him and said they were taking him to the Erie County Prison on a civil charge of nonsupport, according to the suit.
One of the troopers, the suit claims, said that, though Creaton had to go to jail now, "he's gotta get help. He's gotta go to rehab or something."
Creaton went to the Erie County Prison, where he was briefly sent to the emergency room at Millcreek Community Hospital, according to the suit. He was examined and returned to the Erie County Prison, also on Feb. 11. At his initial intake at the prison, according to the suit, Creaton said he was "thinking about suicide."
At the prison, Creaton was placed on "close watch" due to his "possible intentional overdose," on the sedative Xanax, prior to his admission to the prison, according to the suit.
"The prison medical records," according to the suit, "reveal that Matthew was at serious risk of injury or death from suicide, including that Matthew was charged with failure to pay child support, and he was noted to have a history of major depression as diagnosed and treated at Stairways Behavioral Health."
On Feb. 14, the prison medical staff prescribed Creaton an antipsychotic medication and an antidepressant, and directed a "step down" process from close watch for 48 hours, with the watches then to be discontinued, according to the suit.
On Feb. 16, Creaton refused to take his antipsychotic medication, according to the suit. That same day, the suit claims, Creaton "was removed from any sort of watch whatsoever," and refused to take his antidepressant the next day, Feb. 17.
"In other words," according to the suit, "the day after Matthew had all suicide protections removed ... he was refusing to take any of his prescribed mental health medication."
On Feb. 19, according to the suit, the medical staff conducted a daily assessment on Creaton to gauge opiate withdrawal. The results of the exam showed "a clear sign of medical distress" and showed Creaton "was in the middle of a mental health crisis demanding immediate medical intervention," according to the suit.
Creaton, alone in his cell, killed himself later that day.
Claims of a cover-up
The next day, the suit claims, an unsigned one-page document was added to Creaton's file. The document states a "clerical error" was part of Creaton's chart at the Erie County Prison, in that, following his initial psychiatric evaluation, a "yes" rather than a "no" was marked in response to whether he had suicidal ideations, according to the suit. During the psychiatric review, Creaton "stated he is not suicidal," the clarifying document states, according to the suit.
The notes in the document, the suit claims, "demonstrate the clear effort and intent" by some of the medical staff "to mislead the reader, to cover up their demonstrable knowledge of Matthew's serious risk of suicide and to avoid their responsibility for their failure to protect Matthew."
The report by the Erie County Coroner's Office on Creaton's death lists the cause as suicide and refers to his mental health problems. The report states Creaton was at the prison on charges of "non support and contempt for violation of order or agreement."
"Past medical history is documented as major depressive disorder," according to the coroner's report, which the Erie Times-News reviewed. "The Risk Assessment Report from the prison indicated he had suicidal ideations/thoughts the last couple of days and that he had a prior suicide attempt by hanging two years ago."
Concerned about the next 'Matthew'
Mizner, one of the lawyers for the Creaton estate in the lawsuit, said Creaton let a number of people in authority know he was thinking of killing himself.
"I don't know how much clearer it could have been," Mizner said in an interview. "He told the state police, he told the emergency room doctor and he told the psychiatrists at the prison, yet no one did anything to protect him."
The lawsuit seeks damages of at least $75,000 on each of the three counts, with $75,000 as the threshold amount for bringing a civil case in federal court.
The suit also seeks to force changes in the medical care at the Erie County Prison.
"This lawsuit," it says, "is intended to make sure the next 'Matthew' is provided the care the Constitution requires and the respect and decency that a civilized society requires. Nothing more, nothing less."
Original article by: Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNpalattella.