$1.5 Million Settlement Approved in Chicago Jail Suicide Case
On July 12, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois approved a $1.5 million settlement in a case involving the suicide of detainee Areon Marion in Chicago’s Cook County Jail. The order directed how the funds should be distributed among surviving family members and the attorneys who represented the estate.
On June 1, 2021, Chicago police arrested Marion and transported him to the jail. He was assigned to the psychiatric special care unit for symptoms of psychosis, repeatedly expressing suicidal ideation throughout a months-long detention. He also was moved between the special care unit and the jail’s maximum-security division numerous times.
The special care unit has 24-hour mental health care and suicide resistant cells, but the maximum-security division does not. On October 29, 2021, Marion was returned there from the special care unit. Two days later, on October 31, 2021, a guard assigned to perform checks every 30 minutes left his post unattended and without requesting back-up; during his absence, Marion fatally hanged himself. He was just 22 years old.
In December 2022, the dead detainee’s mother, Joanna Wilson, filed a wrongful death suit on behalf of her son’s estate against Cook County and various jail employees. The district court held a settlement conference on November 16, 2023, and the parties reached their agreement. The estate’s attorney, James C. Pullos of Clifford Law Offices P.C. in Chicago, was awarded fees and costs of $616,602.78 in December 2023. But the district court reserved ruling on distribution of the remaining $883,397.22 among family members.
Wilson and Marion’s father, Adair Joyner, agreed that Marion’s younger brother, Dominic Wilson, should receive $2,000, and his older brother, Robert Marion, $2,500. But they differed on how much each parent should receive. Wilson wanted the entire remaining $878,897.22 and said Joyner should receive nothing. He claimed one-third of the balance, or $294,465.74. They represented themselves at a hearing on June 11, 2024.
To resolve their dispute, the district court looked to the Illinois Wrongful Death Act, 740 ILCS 180/2(b), which requires a court to determine the “relative dependency of the parties” on the deceased person in order to calculate the proportion of the estate that each should receive, as laid out in Williams v. Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke’s Med. Ctr., 899 N.E.2d 1241 (Ill. App. Ct. 2008). As the district court explained, “[d]ependency is not limited to financial dependency, but also includes ‘loss of society,’ which is ‘comprised of mutual benefits that each family member receives from the other’s continued existence, including loss of affection, care, attention, companionship, comfort, guidance, and protection,’” quoting Burke v. J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc., 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8167 (N.D. Ill. 1992).
Although not “quantifying the loss Areon’s parents are experiencing” and recognizing that “[l]osing a child is a devastatingly painful experience,” the district court nonetheless compelled the parents to present evidence concerning the closeness of the relationship each had with the son. After that, $791,007.50 was ordered disbursed to Wilson and $87,889.72 to Joyner, based on the court’s finding that Wilson’s “loss of Areon’s companionship is at least 10 times greater than Joyner’s.” See: Wilson v. Cook Cty., 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122843 (N.D. Ill.).
Additional source: ABA Journal
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