Slinker family will settle with Grundy County for $500,000

The family of a Wellsburg man who committed suicide at the Grundy County Jail in 2016 will receive a settlement of $500,000 over claims that the staff’s reckless negligence resulted in his death, according to information first reported by the Des Moines Register last Wednesday.
           
Earl Slinker, the father of the late Jared Slinker, told The Grundy Register that he hopes the resolution of the case will bring about changes to the county’s practices on housing suicidal inmates and staffing levels. At the time of the incident, Shane Oltman, who had been hired just a few weeks prior, was the only jailer/dispatcher working.
           
“I’m not blaming Shane Oltman at all. I feel bad for him. He was just following orders,” Mr. Slinker, who farms near Grundy Center, said. “Grundy County has a very good section in their policy manual on suicide prevention. However, if you’re not going to follow it, it’s not going to do any good.”
           
In the initial filing, the plaintiffs (represented by Cedar Rapids attorney Dave O’Brien) argued that Earl Slinker had provided law enforcement officials with several warnings about his son’s mental state when he learned of a warrant being issued for his arrest, and Jared told the booking officer who processed him that he was depressed—a fact that wasn’t documented on the intake form.
           
After Oltman discovered Jared Slinker, who was 26 years old, in an unresponsive state in his cell on January 28, 2016, it took 13 minutes for an ambulance call to be placed.
           
“What I hope they’re doing, what I pray they’re doing is that they’re not processing people with suicidal tendencies into that jail with one jailer (in the future),” O’Brien said. “If they keep doing that, they’re screwing up…You can’t sit around for 13 minutes.”
 
Grundy County Sheriff Rick Penning, on behalf of himself, Oltman, jail administrator/chief deputy Tim Wolthoff and officers Zach Tripp and Kirk Dolleslager—the four staffers who were working at the time of Slinker’s death—declined to comment beyond saying that the settlement has not officially been finalized, and at the present time, none of the county’s policies have changed.
 
Oltman, Wolthoff, Tripp and Dolleslager are all still employed with the county, and the money will be paid out of an insurance policy with the Iowa Communities Assurance Pool (ICAP). Penning was not present or on duty at the time of the incident.
 
“We’re just being overly cautious,” the longtime sheriff said about his hesitance to speak out on the matter. “We always review the policies periodically.”
 
Both Slinker and O’Brien feel satisfied with the dollar amount of the settlement, which will go to Jared’s three young children, but they still hope that it will increase the focus on preventing jail suicides around the state as Iowa has one of the highest rates in the nation. Last Monday, a Sioux City man who was serving a prison sentence at the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility was found dead and is believed to have taken his own life.
 
Disability Rights Iowa (DRI), the Des Moines-based activist group, has also published a report that largely concurs with the allegations Slinker and O’Brien leveled in their original lawsuit. At the end of the day, however, they don’t feel that any of the law enforcement officials involved in the incident acted out of malice.
 
“I don’t think there was any intent involved here. (Counties) are trying to save money. We’ve got to have tax breaks for the wealthy, so we can’t afford to do these things the way they’re supposed to be done anymore,” O’Brien said. “The county stepped up to the plate and settled. They treated it seriously and appropriately like they should’ve, and I respect them for that.”
 
A trial was originally scheduled for the spring of 2019 at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa in Cedar Rapids, and a hearing is set for October 29 to finalize the agreement. 
 
This story is developing. Follow the Grundy Register for more updates as they become available. Subscribe by calling (319) 824-6958 or clicking here.