Slinker family sues county over jail suicide

By: 
Robert Maharry

One fact pertinent to a case filed with the U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids earlier this month is indisputable: Jared Slinker took his own life at the Grundy County Jail on January 28, 2016. Opinions on why he did it and who’s to blame for the tragic outcome, however, aren’t so universally agreed upon, and now, the estate of the deceased is suing the county itself as well as four law enforcement officers—Chief Deputy Tim Wolthoff, deputies Zach Tripp and Kirk Dolleslager, and dispatcher/jailer Shane Oltman—over alleged violations of Slinker’s constitutional rights and negligence resulting in death.
           
“It’s so unfortunate, and it’s so sad. We’re cutting resources for mental health centers, and sheriffs are becoming the front line for treatment. If they have a mental illness, they end up in jail,” said Dave O’Brien, the attorney for the plaintiffs. “Here’s the downside. Here’s what happens when you cut all these resources.”
           
A 21-page lawsuit dated January 5 paints a grim portrait of a man deep in the throes of amphetamine and opiate addiction, depressed and desperate for help. Slinker, then 26 years old and living in Wellsburg with three young children, had been arrested in Hardin County on December 18, 2015, in conjunction with the theft a GoPro camera from the Iowa Falls Wal-Mart and had a warrant out in Grundy County for Contempt of Court related to a Child Endangerment charge.
           
Earl Slinker, aware of the warrant and nervous about his son’s mental state and drug withdrawals, contacted Dr. Charles LaTendresse on January 23, 2016, to relay his concerns (through Unitypoint, LaTendresse declined to comment beyond the information provided in the police report), and the details of their conversation were passed along to Wolthoff, the jail administrator.
 
According to the suit, the chief deputy told the elder Slinker that the Grundy County Jail, one of the smallest facilities in the area, could not provide adequate medical staff and mental health monitoring for his son, and he should be taken to Black Hawk or Hardin County if he wished to receive those services. Three days later, Tripp arrested Jared for contempt. 
 
Sheriff Rick Penning, Wolthoff, Tripp, and David Schrock, the Cedar Rapids attorney representing the defendants, all declined to comment about the matter on the record, and any potential civil settlement on behalf of the county would be paid out of its policy with the Iowa Communities Assurance Pool (ICAP).
 
Through O’Brien, Mr. Slinker indicated that he did not wish to address the matter directly at the present time, and Lauren Whitman, the mother of Jared’s children, has not responded to an e-mail inquiry. None of Grundy County’s five supervisors offered comments on the case at the conclusion of Monday morning’s regular meeting. 
 
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