Yukon RCMP sued over man's jail death

The daughter of Raymond Silverfox, a Yukon man who died while in RCMP custody in 2008, is suing 11 Mounties and guards who were working in his cellblock on the day he died.

The civil suit, filed in the Yukon Supreme Court on Tuesday, also seeks damages from the Yukon RCMP and the organization that employs detachment guards.

Silverfox, a 43-year-old member of the Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation, was kept in the Whitehorse RCMP detachment's drunk tank for 13 hours before he died on Dec. 2, 2008.

In her statement of claim, Silverfox's 21-year-old daughter, Deanna Lee Charlie, said her father was kept in "inhumane conditions" and his death was caused by negligence on the part of the officers and guards.

A coroner's inquest last month heard that Silverfox spent hours in pain, lying in a pool of his own vomit and excrement on the cell floor, while being ridiculed and laughed at by RCMP officers and guards.

RCMP officers and guards did not give Silverfox any medical help when he was in custody, the inquest heard. He later died in hospital of acute pneumonia, which a medical expert said was likely caused by him inhaling his vomit.

Breached duty of care, suit alleges

The inquest's conclusion that Silverfox died of natural causes outraged Charlie and other family members who said his death should have been ruled a homicide.

In her lawsuit, Charlie accuses the RCMP and guards of breaching their duty of care and not following existing policy.

It claims that the two RCMP officers who arrested Silverfox early in the morning of Dec. 2 failed to assess if he was intoxicated.

The lawsuit also said the detachment officers and guards treated Silverfox in a "grossly shocking and disrespectful manner," adding that their conduct was "intentionally negligent" and "deliberately indifferent."

Charlie's lawsuit names eight RCMP officers who were in the cell area on the day Silverfox died, as well as the three guards who oversaw him.

No date has been set for the case to be heard.