State pays off in heat exposure death of mentally ill man

Thursday, March 9, 2000 | 10:33 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state Board of Examiners agreed Wednesday to pay $46,500 to the daughter of a mentally ill man who escaped from Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services in Las Vegas and later was found dead in the desert -- due to heat exposure.

The board was informed by the state attorney general's office that the state had a legal responsibility to keep Brian Osborn safe within the lockdown facility. A spokesman said Osborn said he wanted to go to the restroom and then wandered off.

The payment will go Angela L. Osborn. A spokesman for the attorney general's office said if the case had gone to trial, it is likely the state would have been hit with a $50,000 judgment plus attorneys' fees and costs.

In another decision, the board also agreed to pay $17,175 to prison inmate Kelly Koerner -- who claimed the prison had illegally confiscated his typewriter in retaliation for exercising his right to free speech.

The prison had adopted a regulation prohibiting inmates from having word processors or typewriters with more than 20,000 characters in their memory. Koerner already owned the typewriter and was exempt from the new regulation.

But when he was transferred to the prison at Ely, his typewriter was taken away from him. Koerner sued and won a permanent court injunction to keep the typewriter. A spokesman for the attorney general's office said the court found the regulation was legitimate but that Koerner was exempt since he already had his machine.

The board also recommended approval for state Controller Kathy Augustine to seek $136,867 in unbudgeted emergency funds to hire two more people in her office.

But Gov. Kenny Guinn, who has been trying to keep a freeze on state hiring, said he has reservations about approving the request. He said other agencies also are asking permission to hire additional help.

"And I have to tell them 'no,' " Guinn said.