Mentally ill veteran died in jail at half his weight

Mentally ill inmate dies at half his body weight in Broward jail; lawsuit alleges neglect
Sun Sentinel
By Tonya Alanez
July 13, 2014

During his 155 days in jail, Raleigh Priester withered to half his body weight.

When the 6-foot-2-inch father of two was found dead on his jail cell floor, he weighed 120 pounds.

On the day of his arrest five months earlier, he had weighed in at 240 pounds, records show.

Priester, 52, spent the final months of his troubled life in solitary confinement at a Broward sheriff's jail, naked, mumbling to himself and playing an imaginary flute.

The mentally ill man frequently refused to eat or take medications, and alternated between banging his head on the floor and laying in a fetal position on his bunk, jail medical records show.

The Sheriff's Office said it hadn't yet received the complaint, but would review it and respond in court. The inmate health-care provider declined to comment about the case, citing federal medical privacy laws.

The U.S. Army veteran with a two-decade history of schizophrenia died July 10, 2012, at a jail in Pompano Beach.

It was a seemingly immature act that landed Priester behind bars.

He was jailed on the morning of Feb. 6, 2012, accused of hurling a rock at a Fort Lauderdale parking-garage attendant and hitting him in the upper back after Priester was told he was trespassing.
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