Lawsuit alleges lack of treatment in Lane County Jail

EUGENE, Ore. – A Fall Creek man is suing Lane County and others, saying he was wrongly denied needed psychiatric care at the Lane County Jail following his 2014 arrest.

The Register-Guard reported that Angelo Fricano is seeking $3 million against the county and Corizon Health, which provided health care to inmates until last year. The nonprofit Civil Liberties Defense Center filed the complaint last week in federal court in Eugene.

Representatives for Corizon and the county declined to comment.

Authorities arrested Fricano in June 2014, after he allegedly used a baseball bat to menace a fellow vendor at the Oregon Country Fair. That criminal case was later dismissed.

The lawsuit says Fricano was taken to jail under a mental hold, which should have required county officials to immediately take him to a hospital to be examined. Instead, he was placed in jail. After 15 days, jail officials took Fricano to a psychiatric hospital in Eugene for treatment.