Settlement reached in 2007 Joplin jail suicide case

Sunday, October 4, 2009 | 8:28 p.m. CDT
BY The Associated Press

JOPLIN — A wrongful-death lawsuit stemming from the suicide of an inmate at the Joplin City Jail has been settled for $85,000.

The Joplin Globe reported that the jail's former operator agreed to settle the suit this past week with relatives of Charles M. Hutcherson. Brentwood, Tenn.-based GRW Corp. did not admit wrongdoing.

The suit, filed in Jasper County Circuit Court, alleged that GRW Corp. failed to keep Hutcherson from harming himself despite clear indications that he might do so when he was taken there.

Hutcherson hanged himself from his bedsheet while in custody at the jail on May 14, 2007.

Joplin police records show he had been arrested four days earlier on misdemeanor charges of assault and marijuana possession and a felony warrant from Greene County for stealing.

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