Mother of suicide victim files wrongful death lawsuit against Washington Township, 2 officers
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The mother of a 25-year-old man who took his own life in 2021 filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit accusing two Washington Township police officers of ignoring signs that her son wanted to harm himself when they arrested him on suspicion of DUI.
Instead of arranging for medical and mental health evaluations for Dimitrios Emmanuel Menas when he told arresting officers he wanted to kill himself, they took him home, where he shot himself, according to the lawsuit filed on behalf Maria Menas by Ken Nolan, an attorney for the Pittsburgh firm Phil Dilucente & Associates.
The lawsuit, which names Washington Township and Officers Jarred Kier and Jake Skunda, seeks a jury trial. It asks for compensation to cover funeral, court and attorney fees along with unspecified punitive damages.
Township Manager Lynn Stascak said the municipality is aware of the lawsuit but deferred questions and comments to Solicitor Wes Long, who is unavailable for comment, according to his staff.
According to the lawsuit, Menas was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence shortly before midnight July 5, 2021, by Kier and Skunda. His vehicle was stopped along Route 66 near Paradise Drive.
Menas told the officers that he was at a party in Saltsburg, where he was forced to drink alcohol and was threatened with physical harm if he did not leave the property, the lawsuit contends. The man told police his gun, shoes and cellphone were taken by someone before he left the party.
Menas was taken into custody and transported to the township police station, where a paramedic from Murrysville was dispatched to draw blood to determine if he was intoxicated, according to the court filing.
Police then took Menas to the home in the 500 block of Beech Road he shared with his mother.
While being transported by police, Menas repeatedly told them that he wanted to harm himself and wished he were dead, which should have prompted them to seek medical and mental care on his behalf, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also contends that, when the officers took Menas home, they failed to tell his mother about suicide threats he had made.
The officers also didn’t ask Maria Menas if her son had access to any guns or other lethal weapons in the house and returned his key ring when he entered the house.
Shortly before 3:30 a.m., Menas barricaded himself in his bedroom, used a key that was returned to him by the officers to unlock a gun safe and shot himself to death, according to the lawsuit.
Maria Menas’ lawyer contends that the officers “acted with reckless indifference to the known risk of suicide” when they “deliberately and willfully” failed to seek medical attention for her son or notify her that he had threatened to harm himself.
The lawsuit also names Washington Township, listing more than a dozen areas in which the municipality failed to properly train officers, among them: employing and retaining officers who did not understand or implement suicide risk assessments, not training officers how to provide medical interventions for people in their custody, and allowing unqualified people to determine the mental health needs of a person being detained.
Menas was a Plum High School graduate. He worked as a residential painter and was a fitness enthusiast who was pursuing modeling and acting, according posts he made on social media.
During the weeks prior to his death, Dimitrios Menas was involved in an online competition for Mr. Health & Fitness in the hopes of snagging a $20,000 prize.
His final post was June 25, 2021, when he thanked supporters for voting him into the top 15 finalists.