Lawyers for Allen County jail suicide lawsuit meet in federal court

FORT WAYNE, Ind. --Jonathan Ohlwine was 35 when he took his own life Oct. 10, 2023 at the Allen County Jail.

When he was arrested on Sept. 12, 2023, he told Fort Wayne police officers he was schizophrenic. It’s on videotape.

He was taken to the downtown Lutheran Hospital for an evaluation and released to police about three hours later to be booked in the Allen County Jail.

Ohlwine then spent the last month of his life in A block in the oldest part of the jail, in general population. Reportedly, he told jail personnel that he didn’t want to take medications for his diagnosis, but he wouldn’t refuse counseling.

Trisha Cordell with her attorney, Jon Olinger. Samuel Bolinger is also representing Cordell.

By this time, Allen County law enforcement was well aware of his incarcerated history and well known to some in the jail system, his former wife, Trisha Cordell says, along with her legal counsel, Jon Olinger and Sam Bolinger. It will be proven in documents, she added.

On Oct. 10, Ohlwine was taken to shower by a block officer who “had no knowledge of the crisis,” according to county attorney John Feighner, and, during the moments he was not monitored, slipped his undershirt over his head and hung himself.

Adam Griffith, Allen County Sheriff's Department and John Feighner, county attorney

The block officer “went in and tried to save this man’s life,” Feighner told Magistrate Andrew Teel in district federal court Thursday at a hearing for all parties involved in a lawsuit brought by Ohlwine’s former wife, Trisha Cordell, for their minor children.

Past article on the Ohlwine case:

https://www.theprobablecause.com/post/a-tortured-mind-a-suicide-now-his-name-lives-on-in-court

Also in attendance were Fort Wayne attorney Carolyn Trier representing the City of Fort Wayne along with city attorney, Malak Heiny, and Brian Pierce, an attorney based in Muncie, appearing in court for Quality Correctional Control, the Carmel-based medical provider for the jail.

Cordell and her attorneys, Jon Olinger and Samuel Bolinger, maintain there were mistakes made throughout the chain of events that led to Olinger’s death.

Jon Olinger gives short statement outside the federal courthouse.

For instance, even though the Fort Wayne Police Department has available a Crisis Intervention Team (CIT), it wasn’t called out when Ohlwine was in the middle of an extremely agitated episode noted in his hospital file the day of his arrest, Olinger stated. 

Trier said police got him to the hospital for treatment, basically doing their job and agreed with Teel that the lawsuit against the city “was the weakest claim” in the lawsuit.

Another aspect of the suit is liability during incarceration. If the suit goes to trial, a jury must decide if jail officials did not notify the medical provider QCC of Ohlwine’s dire need of medical attention or was it QCC who was lax in its treatment efforts.

“We believe he was being treated,” Olinger said in court. “We don’t believe he was being treated properly.” Ohlwine had a “long history of being in jail and a long history of his mental health issues were known at the jail.”

Brian Pierce, attorney for Quality Correctional Care LLC

Outside the court, Cordell said law enforcement had access to an abstract court judgment dated July 2, 2020 that legally designated Ohlwine as a mental health concern. The court judgment occurred after Ohlwine burned down his own home on Oct. 24, 2019. That evening he told his wife that he saw demons and aliens who told him to get the gas can and light the house on fire.

Thursday’s hearing came down to discovery, evidence needed for each party to proceed in crafting its defense. Each party said it needed records and other evidence.

For instance, Trier claimed that Ohlwine was released from the jail on Sept. 27, 2023, a fact that, if it is true, waters down the city’s liability. Court documents show he was released on his own recognizance. 

After the hearing was over, Cordell said he was never released and there is no record of his arrest for battery on a police officer and obstructing traffic in online court documents, the two charges he incurred at his last arrest on Sept. 10, 2023.

Feighner said he wasn’t aware of the claim that he was released, but his staff would have to check jail records.

The tragic end of Ohwline started on Sept. 5, 2023 when Ohlwine was arrested for misdemeanor invasion of privacy by the New Haven Police Department and taken to lock-up in downtown Fort Wayne, Cordell said.

A couple of hours later, he was released. Relatives told Cordell he was going in and out of psychosis and not taking his meds, under the delusion that the meds would hurt him.

A week later, FWPD found him wandering in the middle of Washington Street around noon in a state of delirium. That’s when he was arrested for the last time, Cordell said. In his interaction with an officer, he punched him. Body camera footage was released for that episode.

The hospital evaluation that day included an “EKG, bloodwork, oxygen, tetanus shot, you name it,” Trier stated in court. “He was bleeding on the side of his face. He was clearly out of it.” 

At stake is a wrongful death suit against the county, city and QCC and a separate malpractice lawsuit against Lutheran ’s parent company, IOM Systems LLC.

Some of the cases run to $700,000 that could be awarded in damages and others for more than $1 million, as was discussed in court. Trier said she would probably file for a summary judgment.

With three parties to the suit, the question is who is to blame for the death of a man whose psychosis came about after the death of his sister, Cordell says.

The story of the lives of Jon Ohlwine and his three siblings will be available to all parties; his schizophrenia no doubt a result of situational trauma, brought on by the hideous treatment he endured when he was young.

Teel has set deadlines for the case. By June 2, all fact discovery must be completed and expert discovery, Sept. 4, 2026.

Each party is allowed to serve a maximum of 30 interrogatories and 15 requests for admission on another party., according to Teel's instructions. Each party is allowed to conduct a maximum of 10 depositions, limited to four hours in length.

Scheduled is a planning meeting on Oct. 2, 2025.

With all the time and expense of this suit, perhaps culminating in a trial, Olinger said what’s really needed is change at the state level on how the mentally ill are handled. Ohlwine was clearly not lucid enough to ask for proper treatment for his mental illness.

"We’re putting people with mental illness into general population rather than getting them treatment and nothing is going to come of that,” Olinger said after the hearing was over. “One of the outcomes we’d like to see is maybe a change in policy and that comes from the state, not the sheriff’s department. But for the actions of the parties and the defendants, I think Mr. Ohlwine would be with us today."