Senator Creigh Deeds is suing the state of Virginia. From the Washington Post,Â
State Sen. R. Creigh Deeds has filed a $6 million wrongful death lawsuit against the state of Virginia, a mental health evaluator and an agency that did not find a hospital bed for his mentally ill son, who in 2013 stabbed the senator before killing himself…..
“Virginia’s mental health care system failed my son, Gus,†Deeds said in a statement. “I am committed that my son’s needless death shall not be in vain, and that no other Virginia family suffer this tragedy.â€
More here.
9 comments
In an age of litigiousness as the solution to all issues one would think we would have all our problems solved given the scope of it’s growth in the past few decades. On the other hand if this is about prying a cash settlement out of the state coffers it’s not very likely to address in any meaningful fashion what is a real state failing in mental health care and hopefully prevent further tragedies. Only he truly knows the driving rationale and motives to his actions.
Funny how he didn’t much care for changing state mental health policy before his son attacked him. Suddenly now it is the state’s fault the system, which he never tried to change prior, failed his son. And now mental health is his legislative passion. Never heard a peep from him about it before. It stinks what happened to him and his family, but suing the system you helped create because it doesn’t work the way you want it to after-the-fact is a bit of a stretch.
Agreed. As legislator, he was 1 of about 100 Virginians who could have directly done something in the past to put forth a bill to correct this. And it was the Democrats that defunded the mental health system in the first place. As a Senator, he is more responsible for this than any other person in Virginia. The lawsuit coming from him is incredulous. If the State of Virginia can counter-sue, it should.
Sounds like that is within his right as a citizen.
Of course
Yes, and illustrative of character as well. I take it this was before Obamacare and Deeds didn’t have the means to provide the necessary care for his son through non-governmental means?
Seriously! I have no doubt that they feel some what guilty over their son’s death and hoping to lesson the guilt by blaming the state.
So you think you and I as taxpayers should pay for a situation that we could not have changed but Creigh Deeds could have?
No, I just think that all citizens have a right to petition the government. A lawsuit is a form of petition for redress. The fact the taxpayers may end up paying for the inadequacies of our elected officials is a price to be paid for our form of government.
Deeds the Legislator is not the final arbiter of an elected Assembly in which he is but one member. Maybe the state’s citizens should have addressed these inadequacies in a more forceful manner to our politicians before Citizen Deeds brought forth his lawsuit.