In March 2016, after an 18-year-old in Pasco started hearing voices, his family turned to a county-run mental health clinic for those in crisis as a last resort to get him treatment.
Marc Moreno had a long history of mental illness when he arrived at the Benton County Crisis Response Unit, according to records in a federal lawsuit.
A counselor there soon observed Moreno “was not oriented to time or place and was unable to understand basic questions,” the lawsuit says. “He stated that he was talking to angels. At one point he began hitting himself in the face repeatedly.”
But Moreno didn’t get treated at the clinic. Instead, someone there called the police. Responding officers arrested him on misdemeanor warrants for driving with a suspended license and failing to transfer a vehicle title within 45 days.
Moreno was booked into the Benton County Jail on March 3. Eight days later, he was found dead on the floor of his cell. His official cause of death: cardiac arrhythmia…
— to www.seattletimes.com
