Family files lawsuit in jail death in North Brunswick

NORTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. (WABC) -- The mother of a young man who died in police custody in New Jersey has filed a lawsuit claiming cops and workers at the Middlesex County Jail caused the death of 27-year-old David Yearby.

A neck fracture is what killed him, but his mother claims her son had a history of mental health issues, and she says officers treated that as a crime.

Veronica Yearby said that she didn't even know that her son died of a broken neck until five months after she buried him, and that was only after the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office conducted an internal investigation and declined to prosecute.

That investigation included disturbing and graphic video of David Yearby's final hours.

"When they placed him in the chair and they were saying to him, 'relax Yearby, relax Yearby' and he wasn't doing anything," said Veronica Yearby, David's mother.

Veronica says she had never seen her son David so erratic, despondent, and screaming at the top of his lungs.

"You don't treat somebody like that, that has some kind of mental disorder," Veronica said.

The video was provided to the Yearby family by the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office. It was part of a four-month investigation into the in-custody death of David Yearby at the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center or MCACC in North Brunswick.

The 27-year-old was arrested last October by Piscataway police, and taken there.

"He needed medical attention, he needed to be seen by somebody other than the prison," said Gregg Kerr, an attorney.

Yearby says her son was studying to become a pharmacist student and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder during his second year college.

The day of his arrest, his family says they notified officers that he needed medical attention.

He was taken to MCACC instead and Yearby spiraled downward quickly.

Due to his behavior, the family attorney says in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that corrections officers strapped him to a chair for nine hours, maced him, and beat him so severely that his face was disfigured.

"I was so in shock, because of the way he looked, his face, it was so messed up," Veronica said.

David Yearby was involved in a number of altercations in general population before he was placed in that restraint chair, so it's not clear when he sustained a broken neck.

His mother says she blames Piscataway police because he never should have been taken to jail in the first place.

The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office released a statement saying, "No charges have been filed in this case. The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office cannot comment any further."