Sep 25, 2017 By The 3 min read

A Greene County man wrote what he called “death notes” in a 104-page notebook he kept before committing suicide in the Washington County Correctional Facility, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court.

Gregory Michaux, 38, of Clarksville hung himself with a bed sheet in the secured housing unit of the facility on Sept. 26, 2015, according to the filing from his family’s attorney, Noah Geary. He had been in prison since March 23, 2015, awaiting trial on assault charges.

The notebook Michaux kept documented numerous other suicide attempts, Geary wrote, and shows a man “who was in dire need of immediate and serious medical care for his mental illness and suicidality.

“It is tragic and extremely painful to read,” Geary wrote in the suit, filed on behalf of Michaux’s daughter, Janaye Michaux-Orris, and his brother, Jason Michaux.

In one of the entries, Gregory Michaux asks for forgiveness, and writes that he plans to kill himself after a prison worker collects the trays. The suit also cites failed suicide attempts chronicled in the notebook.

“Why do I keep failing at this? It can’t be that hard to die,” Geary quoted him as writing.

The notes Gregory Michaux kept, Geary contended, show that there were numerous bed sheets that were torn during failed attempts to commit suicide.

Prison personnel should have realized, he claimed, and known that there was a high risk that Gregory Michaux would try to take his life.

Michaux was the second of three inmates to commit suicide by hanging in the prison over an 8-month period in 2015.

Seven months prior, inmate Richard Kempf, 31, of Washington, Pennsylvania, killed himself, and three weeks after Gregory Michaux’s death, Darius Rawls, 20, of Charleroi hung himself in a similar manner, Geary wrote.

That three inmates committed suicide within eight months is evidence of “an unconstitutional practice and custom of deliberate indifference to inmates’ suicidality,” the suit contended.

Geary also claimed that officers were not properly trained on suicide prevention, and contended prison officials were aware that Gregory Michaux was mentally ill, but did not provide him with medical care of medications to manage it.

Washington County Commissioner Larry Maggi said while he knew of the situation involving Michaux, he was not made aware of the lawsuit and cannot comment on the suit, but said he does support the prison’s faculty and staff.

The filing names the prison’s former warden, John Temas, who retired in 2016, as a defendant. Also named were five corrections officers who were identified only by their last names, two unidentified nurses and an unidentified counselor.

The suit asks for unspecified monetary damages.