Man died of drug withdrawal in Philly police custody as officers ignored his suffering, lawsuit says
Jonathan Lau told police he was a heroin user and was experiencing withdrawal while in police custody, the lawsuit says.
A man died of opioid withdrawal in a Philadelphia police station because officers ignored his suffering while he was in custody for more than 48 hours but was never charged with a crime, his family contends in a lawsuit.
Jonathan Lau, 42, of Hanover, York County, told police he was addicted to heroin and suffering from withdrawal after he was arrested on suspicion of theft in September of last year, according to the suit, which was filed in federal court in Philadelphia on Nov. 27.
The suit names the City of Philadelphia, the police department, 12 police officers, a nurse, and the health-care company Yescare.
According to the suit, two police officers approached Lau, who was homeless, on the 100 block of Race Street and said he matched the description of someone who had stolen from the Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Spruce Street. Lau was wanted on a bench warrant out of York for failing to report for probation, said Brian Zeiger, one of the family’s attorneys, and officers took him to the detention unit at Police Headquarters on North Broad Street.
There, the suit said, Lau languished for more than two days while going through withdrawal, and officers and a nurse did nothing to help him.
According to the suit, police were aware of his worsening condition and did nothing to help. A day before Lau died, a police officer wrote on a form that Lau told officers he was going through heroin withdrawal, but the officer said she saw no signs of that.
A nurse working for Yescare later saw that Lau had vomited and was slumped over the sink in his cell and recommended that he be taken to a hospital, but that did not happen, according to the suit.
Hours later, a police officer saw that Lau was unresponsive and checked his pulse, the suit said. Lau was pronounced dead soon afterward, nearly three days after he was taken into custody, according to the suit.
Zeiger, the family’s lawyer, said that the department’s policies on assessing the medical needs of those in custody were deficient and that officers allowed Lau to “fester” behind bars until his death.
Philadelphia police declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation, and the department continues to investigate Lau’s death. City officials also declined to comment. Officials at Yescare could not be immediately reached for comment.