An Everson woman has filed a federal civil rights and wrongful death lawsuit against Whatcom County, former county officials, and a third-party healthcare contractor, alleging that her son's death at the Whatcom County Jail in September 2023 was preventable and the result of systemic failures in mental health care and suicide prevention training.
What the Lawsuit Alleges
Elaine Barness filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington at the end of August. She names former Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo, former corrections chief deputy Wendy Jones, and Compass Health, the company that provided contracted mental health services to jail inmates, as defendants alongside Whatcom County itself.
The lawsuit centers on the death of her son, Robert Barness Jr., who was 36 years old when he died in custody on September 19, 2023. Robert had been diagnosed with autism, Tourette's syndrome, and schizophrenia. According to the lawsuit, he was arrested on June 24, 2023, after assaulting a family friend while experiencing a mental health crisis. Elaine Barness says the family specifically asked prosecutors not to file charges, but second-degree assault charges were brought anyway.
From the time of his booking, the lawsuit alleges, Robert Barness' mental health declined steadily and the jail lacked adequate capacity for proper medical screening. Elaine says she spoke directly with a sheriff's deputy about her son's mental health history, including prior suicide attempts, and requested a Designated Crisis Responder evaluation. Instead, he underwent a simpler medical screening and was placed in the general population.
In the days before his death, Robert Barness reported auditory and visual hallucinations, missed psychiatric medications, and was observed acting "erratic and hyperactive." Staff had moved him to a floor with better staffing for observation, then moved him back to general housing because there was "no ongoing mental health reason" to keep him there. He harmed himself with glass from his eyeglasses, was found banging his feet against his cell door, and was moved again for monitoring. He was found unresponsive in his cell with a significant head injury and hospitalized. He was taken off life support two days later.
The Pattern the Lawsuit Points To
One of the lawsuit's most significant claims is that the county had clear warning signs well before Robert Barness died. Elaine Barness alleges there had been five separate prior incidents at the Whatcom County Jail in which inmates died by suicide without prompting significant changes to staff training and protocol. If accurate, that history suggests the county was on notice that its suicide prevention systems were inadequate.
The lawsuit also names Compass Health, which has contracts with multiple county jails and detention facilities across Washington State to provide mental health services to incarcerated individuals. Compass Health is accused of negligence in its care of Robert Barness. Third-party healthcare contractors in jails occupy a complex accountability space: they are private companies responsible for clinical decisions but operating inside a government facility under a government contract, which can create gaps in oversight and responsibility when things go wrong.
The involvement of a person with Robert Barness' documented diagnoses in the criminal justice system at all is itself a subject the lawsuit raises implicitly. People with serious mental illness are vastly overrepresented in jails and prisons nationally, often because community mental health resources are inadequate to manage crises before they escalate to criminal charges. Elaine Barness notes that her family had asked for a different response to her son's crisis than incarceration, and that request was not honored.
What the Lawsuit Seeks and What Comes Next
The lawsuit seeks damages for wrongful death and negligence. Because it is filed in federal court, it likely includes federal civil rights claims under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983, which allows individuals to sue government officials for constitutional violations including deliberate indifference to serious medical needs, a legal standard that courts have applied to inadequate mental health care in jails and prisons.
The case will proceed through the federal court system in Seattle. Whatcom County and the individual defendants will have the opportunity to respond to the complaint, and the parties may engage in discovery before any trial. Cases of this type often take two or more years to reach resolution, either through settlement or a court judgment.
For Whatcom County residents who are concerned about jail conditions or mental health services in the local criminal justice system, the county council oversees the sheriff and has the authority to require policy changes. The county council can be reached at 311 Grand Avenue in Bellingham. If you or someone you know is in a mental health crisis, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available by calling or texting 988. Earlier coverage of Whatcom County public safety accountability can be found in recent local reporting.
