Metro will pay dead Frenchman’s father $500,000

Jen Lawson

Tuesday, July 29, 2003 | 11 a.m.

The Metro Police fiscal oversight committee agreed Monday to pay $500,000 to settle a federal lawsuit filed by the father of a French citizen who died in the Clark County Detention Center after a violent struggle with guards two years ago.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas by Yves LeMenn of France, claimed wrongful death, battery and negligent supervision and training in connection with the death of his son, Philippe LeMenn, in January 2001.

"No parent could ever be satisfied with a settlement that involved the loss of a son or daughter," one of Yves LeMenn's Los Angeles attorneys, V. James DeSimone, said. "Resolving this matter was a very difficult descision for Mr. LeMenn."

Attorneys representing Metro Police declined to comment.

Since August 2002, Metro's Fiscal Affairs Committee has approved payments totaling nearly $1.6 million to settle various lawsuits against the department. The money comes from the department's liability insurance fund, fueled by taxpayer money.

Metro's lawyers said Monday's settlement ends any outstanding lawsuits against the department in connection with LeMenn's death.

But Yves LeMenn does have one lawsuit that remains has unresolved, DeSimone said.

It's against Prison Health Services Inc., a private company that is paid to provide health care at the Clark County Detention Center.

DeSimone said the psychiatrists and psychologists who were at the jail when LeMenn was being booked failed to provide him with proper mental health care. LeMenn was in the throes of a psychiatric attack when he was arrested, he said.

A settlement was not reached with Prison Health Services because the company "has failed to acknowledge its culpability in this matter," DeSimone said.

"A psychologist and psychiatrist should have been alerted immediately of Mr. LeMenn's presence in the jail," DeSimone said. "Anyone who observed Mr. LeMenn would know he was mentally ill."

Yves LeMenn's suit against Prison Health Services is scheduled to go to trial in November in Las Vegas federal court.

LeMenn, 33, who managed a restaurant in Las Vegas at the time of his death, was arrested Jan. 4, 2001 at an elementary school by Clark County School District Police after he allegedly banged on a school bus and yelled incoherently at a group of students in an apparent psychiatric episode.

He was taken to the jail and booked on charged of disorderly conduct, annoying a minor and causing a disturbance on school property. He was combative both verbally and physically, Metro Police said.

LeMenn struggled with guards as they tried to put him in a cell. The guards tried to regain control of the 275-pound man, and during the struggle he collapsed and died.

The coroner's inquest cleared the nine corrections officers of any wrongdoing in connection with LeMenn's death.

The incident caused outrage among French nationals in Los Angeles, where LeMenn lived part of the time, and in France after a jail video showing the guards struggling with LeMenn aired on television.

Philip Moreau, LeMenn's cousin, said he didn't think LeMenn would be happy to know his father was awarded a settlement.

"I don't think this would have been the wish of my cousin. His father abandoned him when he was young," Moreau, a Los Angles businessman, said during a phone interview Monday. "I hope all the money goes to the lawyers."