Family Sues for $50 Million Over Jailed Youth’s Suicide

The family of a Garden Grove youth, who hanged himself in Orange County Jail last June, filed a $50-million federal lawsuit against the county Wednesday, charging that negligence by jail and county employees caused his death.

Thanh Thien Lam, 17, was an inmate in Orange County Jail last June 22 when he fashioned a noose out of bed sheets and hanged himself, according to the suit filed in the U.S. District Court branch in Santa Ana.

The family’s lawyer, Shambhu K. Rai, said he has only sketchy details in the complicated case, but he believes that the youth had been given improper counsel by a public defender just before his death.

Told He Was Going to Jail

“His (Lam’s) mental condition was very unstable at that time,” Rai said. The public defender apparently told the youth that he was going to be in jail “a long, long time in view of his trial records and the charges for which he had been booked then.”

Rai said he does not have Lam’s full criminal record yet, but he added that the youth had a “long rap sheet. He had a disturbed childhood since he came here.”

Lam’s family, which Rai termed “closely knit,” came to the United States from Vietnam in 1984. Lam, who attended Rancho Alamitos High School, was described by his parents as a “nice boy,” but one who later got into trouble, Rai said.

Sometime in 1985 or 1986, Lam was arrested and sent to Juvenile Hall, Rai said, although he did not know on what charges. While in Juvenile Hall, the youth escaped twice.

During one of the escape attempts, Rai said, Lam was arrested again on a charge of grand theft for allegedly stealing a car. At that time the courts decided that he should be tried as an adult, and he was placed in Orange County Jail, Rai said.

Criminal Record Sealed

Because Lam was a juvenile, his criminal record is sealed, a court official said Wednesday. However, Department of Motor Vehicles records indicate that the youth, who did not have a driver’s license, was cited for stealing a car and falsely identifying himself to a police officer on March 25, 1985.

“The attorney appointed by the county spoke to him shortly before he died, and the attorney gave him to understand that he (Lam) was going to be in there (jail) a long, long time,” Rai said.

While Lam was in jail, the suit said, county employees were “aware of the susceptibility of (Lam) toward suicide and yet failed to properly monitor (Lam) in jail.”

As a result, Lam killed himself, Rai said, and Lam’s mother, Tan Thi Thai, and two of his brothers, Dung Thai Lam and Kiet Hao Lam, filed the lawsuit. Family members declined Wednesday to talk about the suit.

County officials could not be reached.