From [HERE] The family of Lyvita Gomes, who died while in custody in a Lake County, Ill., jail, filed a wrongful death suit June 7 seeking an unstipulated amount of monetary damages, alleging that the sheriff’s department and jail personnel denied the former flight attendant appropriate medical care. Gomes, 52 at the time of her death on Jan. 3, was jailed for failing to show up for jury duty. She died after going on a hunger strike that lasted more than 15 days. Her family claims that administrative and medical personnel at Lake County Jail ignored obvious signs of Gomes’ mental and physical illness, which led to her death.

The suit names Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran; Wayne Hunter, chief of operations at the jail; and three others, including Dr. Hargurmukh Singh, who provided medical care for inmates through a contract with Correct Care Solutions. It was filed by the Chicago-based People’s Law Office on behalf of the estate of Lyvita Gomes.

In April, Curran hired a private attorney, Terry Ekl, to determine whether there was misconduct in Gomes’ death as well as the death of Eugene Gruber, who died in a hospital March 3 of pneumonia resulting from paralysis, four months after he was dragged through Lake County jail by guards who had earlier allegedly twisted his neck in a take-down move.