|
|
| Suit filed in stabbing death case |
|
|
By Tom Marshall
Senior Advocate writer
Operators of Community Residency Care Home, the veterans facility where Darrell Neeley was stabbed to death in 2009, is accused of negligence in a lawsuit filed by the administrators of Neeley’s estate.
The suit was filed Jan. 22 in Montgomery County Circuit Court.
Plaintiffs in the suit are the co-administrators of the Neeley estate: Shirley and Dean Spivey.
Named as defendants in the suit are Brenda and Michael Wattenberger, d.b.a. as the Community Residency Care Home, and Wanda Short and Doug Keith, who oversaw residents at the facility.
Neeley, identified as a caregiver at the facility, died Jan. 26, 2009, when he was reportedly stabbed in the chest with a pocket knife by a resident, Kenneth Brasiel, during a dispute over cigarettes. Neeley was 51 when he died.
“Mr. Neeley died because the people in charge of Community Residency Care Home failed to properly supervise one of its residents,” the suit claims. “They negligently allowed an individual with paranoid tendencies and possibly a paranoid schizophrenic to obtain a knife that he used to stab and kill Mr. Neeley when a dispute arose between them over cigarettes.”
Brasiel, 55, had been referred to Community Residency Care on Yeller Hoss Lane off Kiddville Road by the Veteran’s Administration psychiatric facility on Leestown Road in Lexington, according to the suit. He had paranoid tendencies and may have been a paranoid schizophrenic, the suit claims.
Although residents at the home were not allowed to obtain or have weapons, including knives, Brasiel had somehow obtained a knife, the suit claims.
“The defendants had a duty to supervise the residents of the Community Residency Care Home to assure that they did not obtain weapons and/or use the weapons they obtained against other employees or residents,” the suit alleges. “As a direct and proximate result of the defendants’ negligence Darrell K. Neeley was stabbed by Mr. Brasiel, endured pain and suffering and eventually died. The defendants’ negligence was a substantial factor in causing Mr. Neeley’s injuries, damages and ultimate death.”
The suit, filed by Lexington attorney Derek D. Humfleet, asks for unspecified compensatory damages, post judgment interest and reimbursement of costs.
Humfleet told the Advocate he hopes the suit will resolve several unanswered questions such as how the slaying occurred, where Brasiel obtained the knife, why Brasiel was not supervised and his mental status at the time of the alleged crime.
Brasiel is charged with murder in the Neeley case and is currently undergoing a mental evaluation at the Kentucky Correction Psychiatric Center. A status hearing in his case is scheduled for Feb. 26.
It was not immediately clear if the defendants had obtained representation and whom that might be.
A lawsuit reflects only one side in a dispute.
|
|
|
|
|