Cedar Rapids lawyer wins $3.5 million settlement for jail death

CEDAR RAPIDS — A Cedar Rapids lawyer said he hopes more Iowa local governments follow the lead of Cerro Gordo County officials, who didn’t cover up wrongdoing and accepted responsibility for a man who died in jail.

Dave O’Brien said the three children of Ricky Christianson, 61, of Mason City, hope the $3.5 million settlement with Cerro Gordo County can help prevent another death due to neglect of care while in a county jail.

O’Brien said open communication with defense attorneys resulted in a fair resolution for all parties.

“This was a horrible, horrible mistake, but at least, it’s not compounded by not admitting the wrongdoing or trying to cover it up,” O’Brien told The Gazette Friday.

Lawyers for the county and other employees sued in November 2021 didn’t file any motions to dismiss or for summary judgment on qualified immunity — protecting law enforcement accused of violating rights. Instead, they “acted swiftly and appropriately to resolve the matter.”

In other similar wrongful death lawsuits O’Brien has handled, this doesn’t happened, he said. He is considering filing three similar lawsuits — none in Linn County.

“Too often other localities attempt to cover up wrongdoing and refuse to admit when law enforcement officers violate peoples’ civil rights,” O’Brien noted. “This kind of response just encourages more wrongful conduct and more lawsuits as a result.”

“This (case) gives the (Christianson family) great confidence that such a mistake is highly unlikely to be repeated,” O’Brien added.

O’Brien said the surveillance video taken from the jail helped show what happened Nov. 18, 2020, when Christianson died.

Christianson was arrested and booked into the Cerro Gordo Jail Nov. 17, 2020, on a warrant for a parole violation on his conviction for violating the sex offender registry requirements for second time.

Christianson told deputies he was being treated for life-threatening seizures related to alcoholism and that he had had a seizure the previous day.

Surveillance footage showed Christianson began having seizures Nov. 18 and he was moved to a padded solitary cell, O’Brien said. He was found dead an hour and a half later when an employee checked on him.

The employees said they conducted video review checks of him while in the cell but didn’t physically check his cell for an hour and a half.

O’Brien said he wanted to thank Christianson’s children — Samantha Christianson Bashir, Cody Christianson and Zachariah Halvorson — for the “honor and privilege of representing them.” He also thanked Ben Novotny and Nick Rowley of Trial Lawyers for Justice who have law offices in Des Moines and Decorah, for their expertise on the case.

Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com