Lawyer questions 3 inmate deaths at S. Jersey jail

A Philadelphia lawyer working with the families of two inmates who died in a South Jersey jail last year said Friday that he plans to investigate the death this month of a third inmate at the same facility.

Conrad Benedetto said he would look into the June 3 death of Jon Watson, 43, of Bridgeton, Cumberland County, who was found unresponsive in his cell in the Cumberland County Correctional Facility.

Benedetto is also representing the families of Alissa Allen, 24, of Millville, and Robert Lewis, 35, of Vineland, who were found dead last year.

Benedetto said Friday all three inmates' deaths were believed by authorities to be suicides. But he said that may be in dispute, depending on the findings of his independent investigations.

During the same period, from March 2015 to this month, that the Cumberland County Jail had three suspected inmate suicides, the Burlington County Jail, which houses 500 inmates, had none. The Camden County Jail, which has 1,248 inmates, had two.

It was not known how many inmates the Cumberland County jail houses. Warden Robert Balicki was not in the office Friday and could not be reached for comment. A woman in his office referred a reporter to County Solicitor Theodore Baker, who was on vacation.

A call to the regional medical examiner's office that serves the county was referred to Peter Aseltine, a spokesman for the state attorney general, who told a reporter to contact the county Prosecutor's Office.

Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae said Friday she was not commenting on the deaths. She said the appropriate person for a reporter to speak to was the warden.

Benedetto said Watson's family told him that Watson had just been granted a bail reduction by a Superior Court judge on June 3 before returning to his cell.

"The family was in the process of making arrangements to secure his release" when they learned Watson was found unresponsive and later that day was pronounced dead, Benedetto said.

Watson was the father of minor children and had an adult son, he said. His family has said his death doesn't make sense, Benedetto said.

Watson "was an otherwise healthy individual," and in general, it seems surprising that someone who was about to be released from jail would commit suicide, the lawyer said.

Benedetto added that if Watson had suicidal tendencies, that should have been noted during the jail's intake process, and steps should then have been taken to prevent him from harming himself.

According to news reports, Watson was jailed on charges of resisting arrest, eluding police, and driving while his license was suspended.

Allen was found hanging in her cell on March 22, 2015. She had been arrested on a traffic warrant by Millville police two days before. The Prosecutor's Office said last June that her death was not suspicious.

"Alissa had a heart of gold and her family meant the world to her," an online obituary for Allen read. "More than anything she had a deep love for her niece, Ellianna and her nephew Anthony."

Lewis was found hanging in the jail's showers from a bedsheet on Oct. 29. News outlets reported that he had been arrested that week for robbery and was held on $100,000 bail.

An obituary said Lewis, who once worked as a service parts director at a car dealership, loved the Phillies and MMA fights, and had struggled with depression and addiction.

"As much as Robert was a beacon of hope for others, he was never able to grasp onto a beacon for himself," the obituary read. "Even in his darkest hours, Robert's dignity and self-respect prevailed. He hated what he had become and he refused to succumb on any other term but his own."

Benedetto has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Allen's family against the jail and other entities.

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