Mother sues over 2021 suicide death of troubled daughter at Michigan's prison for women

LANSING — Michigan prison officials failed a woman with a history of mental health problems who committed suicide at the state's prison for women in 2021, a federal lawsuit alleges.

Natasha Roark, 39, who had been recognized as a suicide risk both before and after she was sent to Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility near Ypsilanti, had stopped taking her medications and attending medical appointments and was left alone with a bedsheet inside a handicapped restroom when she died on Aug. 11, 2021, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

"Defendants should have instituted policies and/or enforced policies which would have alerted WHV personnel to respond to an inmate making multiple trips to a bathroom with bedsheets, especially one who has a long history of mental health issues," alleges the lawsuit, filed by Roark's mother and legal guardian, Sheila Lewis of Florida.

Lewis told the Free Press in 2021 that her daughter was a widow and the mother of three daughters, ages 18, 14 and 9, at the time of her death. Roark, who was close to her earliest release date at the time of her suicide, had both mental and physical health issues, suffering from psychosis and problems with one of her legs because she did not receive required physical therapy after a hip replacement, Lewis said.

Roark grew up in Florida and was a marine biologist who worked for the city of Chicago, but who had struggled with alcoholism, her mother said. "It just doesn't make any sense — it's horrible."

Named as defendants in the lawsuit are MDOC Director Heidi Washington and Warden Jeremy Howard as well as other unnamed prison officials.

Racine Miller, the Birmingham attorney representing Lewis, alleges violation of Roark's federal constitutional rights and also cites Michigan's wrongful death law. The suit seeks unspecified damages in excess of $75,000.

Jennie Riehle, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Corrections, declined comment on the lawsuit Tuesday, saying the department does not comment on pending litigation.

An autopsy showed the medications prescribed and ordered for Roark were not present in her system at the time of her death, according to the lawsuit. Also, Roark had missed a scheduled medical review on June 8, a group therapy session on June 14, and a medical appointment on July 26, the lawsuit alleges.

Prison video shows Roark entered the restroom and closed the door at 11:40 a.m. and was not discovered by prison officials until just over one hour later.

The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Jonathan Grey.

If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on X, @paulegan4.