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Matthew D. Kaplan

by

The State of Oregon, two of its employees, and SUV driver Joseph Paul Merris have been named defendants in a wrongful death lawsuit seeking over $3.4 million in financial compensation. Delno Williams, the father of 18-year-old psychiatric patient Heather Williams, filed the lawsuit in Umatilla County Circuit Court.

Heather died last December after she jumped out of a moving Department of Human Services van on Interstate 84 close to Milepost 205. She was then struck by an SUV driven by Merris. Heather died of her motor vehicle accident-related injuries.

According to the wrongful death complaint, the state of Oregon, the Department of Human Services, and Blue Mountain Recovery Center employees Renee Avenson and John L. Jones were negligent because they did not put Heather in a vehicle with a cage so she couldn’t jump out. The suit also alleges the failure to train and instruct employees correctly so they would have acted preemptively to prevent Heather from getting out of the van. According to an internal report, this was not the first time that Heather had tried jumping out of a moving vehicle, and center workers had been warned to transport her in vehicles with child-proof locks and a cage.

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