Jan 15, 1:47 PM EST


Government to pay in case of vet who took own life

By KIMBERLY HEFLING
Associated Press Writer



WASHINGTON (AP) -- The parents of an Iraq veteran who allegedly committed suicide after being turned away from a Department of Veterans Affairs facility said Thursday they've agreed to a $350,000 settlement offered by the government.

Jeffrey Lucey, a 23-year-old former Marine corporal, hanged himself in his parents' home in 2004, two weeks after the Northampton Veterans Medical Center in Leeds, Mass., released him.

Kevin and Joyce Lucey of Belchertown, Mass., filed suit in federal court in Springfield, Mass., in 2007, alleging negligence on the part of then-Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson in their son's death. In the complaint, they alleged that a few days after their son was involuntarily committed, VA personnel said they couldn't make an assessment of his post-traumatic stress disorder until he was alcohol free and then released him.

A few days later, his family took Lucey back to the center, but the staff turned him away, the lawsuit said.

The settlement was announced by Military Families Speak Out, an anti-war group his parents joined after their son's death. The attorney for the parents, Cristobal Bonifaz of Conway, Mass., said they are hopeful that VA personnel will now be more attentive to the mental health needs of veterans.

"My clients lost their son so there's no way money can compensate for their loss," Bonifaz said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Goodwin, who handled the case for the government, said the VA is not admitting any liability.

In a Jan. 6 letter to Bonifaz offering the settlement to the parents, Goodwin said Lucey's death helped spawn changes in the handling of Iraq veterans - both at the Northampton hospital and VA-wide. Among the changes was the hiring of suicide prevention coordinators, she said.

The case is believed to be among the first suits filed against the VA stemming from the suicide of an Iraq war veteran.

In a separate suit filed last year in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, the widow of an Iraq war veteran who committed suicide while in outpatient care for depression at a VA hospital alleged negligence. Tiera Woodward claimed her husband, Donald, sought treatment at a VA hospital in Lebanon, Pa., after three suicide attempts but wasn't seen by a psychiatrist for more than two months

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END of Associated Press Release