County settles lawsuit in teenager's death

ELIZABETH, N.J. - Union County will pay $780,000 to the mother of a teenager whose suicide in the Juvenile Detention Center here drew attention to overcrowding and other poor conditions.

Yolanda Padilla of Elizabeth said the money, approved by freeholders, did little to assuage the loss of her 17-year-old son, who had been jailed for violating his probation over a stolen bicycle.

"I'm just tired. I don't think there is any justice, I'm ready to get it over with," Padilla said.

One of Padilla's lawyers, Eugene Melody, said Eddie Sinclair Jr.'s death in 2003 had been avoidable.

"The settlement in this case should be a bellwether for juvenile detention facilities nationwide to recognize inmates with mental-health issues and provide adequate suicide screening and prevention," Melody said.

Sinclair's death, in which he used a bedsheet to hang himself from an exposed and broken fire sprinkler, came amid increased state complaints about poor conditions at the detention center.

The state had directed the county to end overcrowding at the facility, perched on top of a parking garage. Three young people were often locked in a single cell for 18 to 20 hours at a time, and the center often held as many as 70 youths, double the number it was designed to hold.

After Sinclair died, the state Juvenile Justice Commission forced the county to fumigate for rodents, paint walls, clean grates, and keep fewer than 34 youths at the center.

The county plans to have a new detention center, with a capacity for 76 juveniles, open in Linden by March.

Union County spokesman Sebastian D'Elia would not discuss specifics of the settlement. "We want to extend our sympathies to his family," he said.