David Yearby
David Yearby was 27 and had been studying to become a pharmacist when he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder during his second year of college. His family says they told officers on the day of his arrest that he needed medical attention, but he was taken to the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center in North Brunswick, New Jersey, where his condition worsened. He died there on November 2, 2014. His mother, Veronica Yearby, and the family's attorney, in a lawsuit, claim that corrections officers strapped him to a chair for nine hours, pepper-sprayed and beat him, and that a neck fracture killed him. The article notes that it is unclear when that injury occurred.
Cause of death, as reported: Killed by staff (disputed; neglect alleged). The family's lawsuit says corrections officers strapped David Yearby to a chair for nine hours, pepper-sprayed and beat him, and that a neck fracture killed him, and it says officers ignored his family's warning that he needed medical attention for his bipolar disorder.
Reported by: Middlesex County Jail (the agency that held him); his mother, Veronica Yearby, and the family's attorney in a lawsuit (family or their lawyers).
Lawsuit: His family filed a lawsuit alleging corrections officers strapped him to a chair for nine hours, pepper-sprayed him and beat him, and that a neck fracture killed him.