Somerset County settles 2 lawsuits over jail deaths

Jun. 13—Family members of two inmates who died in separate incidents at the Somerset County Jail have settled their respective lawsuits against the county and jail officials.

The county's insurer, the Maine County Commissioners Association Self-Funded Risk Management Pool, issued settlement payments totaling $345,000 earlier this month, according to records obtained through a request under Maine's Freedom of Access Act.

Court records indicate the settlements in both lawsuits were reached in late April. Both cases were formally dismissed in court June 9, a week after records indicate the Risk Pool issued the payments.

The Risk Pool is a publicly funded insurer that provides risk management services to Maine's county governments via the Maine County Commissioners Association. Somerset County pays about $220,000 per year for liability coverage, according to County Administrator Tim Curtis.

The lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Court in Bangor in May 2024 within a few days of each other, and they contained similar language. Attorney Stephen Smith, of Steve Smith Trial Lawyers in Augusta, represented plaintiffs in both.

In the first lawsuit, Millar Watson, the father of Mitchell Watson and personal representative of his estate, sued Somerset County; Dale Lancaster, the sheriff; Michael Pike, formerly the assistant jail administrator; and Joshua Bowden, a jail supervisor.

Watson's complaint said Mitchell Watson died Feb. 6, 2023, at the county jail in Madison from exposure to drugs smuggled into the jail. Mitchell Watson, of Dexter, was 35 at the time of his death, according to an obituary published in the Bangor Daily News.

The complaint alleged the county and the named jail officials knew Watson was suffering from symptoms of drug exposure and "deliberately or with depraved indifference let him die." It also alleged they failed to secure the jail from drugs coming into the facility.

The Risk Pool paid $197,500 to settle that lawsuit, records show. It also has paid out about $100,000 in legal fees and other defense-related expenses, according to Director of Operations Malcolm Ulmer.

In the other matter, Paula White, the mother of Virgil White and personal representative of his estate, sued the county, Lancaster, Pike, Bowden and Samuel Urszinyi, a corrections officer.

White's complaint said Virgil White died by hanging and asphyxiation Dec. 5, 2022, at the jail and alleged the county and the named jail officials failed to provide adequate mental and physical health care to Virgil White, of Athens. White was 33, according to his obituary published in the Morning Sentinel.

The Risk Pool paid $147,500 to settle that lawsuit, records show. It also has paid out nearly $63,000 in legal fees and other defense-related expenses, according to Ulmer.

The settlement agreements themselves, also obtained from the risk pool through a public records request, are largely boilerplate, stating that the plaintiffs agreed to release the defendants of all claims. They state the amount of the settlement payment as $1 and "other good and valuable consideration."

The releases also have stipulations for confidentiality and nondisparagement.

Smith, the attorney who represented Millar Watson and Paula White, declined to comment on the cases.

Peter Marchesi, of the Waterville law firm Wheeler & Arey, who represented Somerset County, Lancaster and Pike, did not reply to a request for comment.

John Wall, of the Portland law firm Monaghan Leahy, who represented Bowden and Urszinyi, also could not be reached.

Lancaster, the sheriff, said that he could not speak about the cases when reached Friday via telephone.

He said, speaking generally, that after every death at the jail, his office conducts an internal review of operations at the facility.

"As a result of that, sometimes there are changes," Lancaster said.

Bowden and Urszinyi no longer work for Somerset County, Lancaster said.

Pike, at the time the lawsuits were filed, had been promoted to the jail administrator and held the rank of major. Pike still works for the Somerset County Sheriff's Office, assigned as the school resource officer for Maine School Administrative District 59 in Madison.

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