Constable, wife sue Centerville
A state constable who lives in Ellsworth is suing Centerville Borough over his fall into a culvert while pursuing a man who was reported to police as a possible suicide risk.
G. Scott Lucy answered a call the night of June 16, 2011, after a Richeyville resident reported that his brother had taken a prescription medication used to control both seizures and panic disorder, drank wine and was threatening to harm himself.
When Lucy arrived, a woman yelled that the man had just fled from a back door of the home, so police began a search.
Lucy was running in an area along Richey Street when he stepped into a Centerville drainage pipe or “unguarded culvert” that carried stormwater into a wooded area below, the suit said.
Lucy claims he tried to brace himself by stretching out his left arm, suffering a shoulder injury and rotator cuff tear, for which he was treated with arthroscopic procedures.
He said the culvert was barely visible during the daytime and was impossible to see at either dusk or night because the borough failed to illuminate it.
The constable is seeking more than $50,000 in damages. His wife, Heather, also sued for an additional $50,000 in her claim for loss of consortium.
Also responding to the call, according to a report by Centerville police included in the complaint, were officers from Beallsville, East Bethlehem Township, California, Southwest Regional Police Department and West Brownsville.
The man for whom police were looking was taken into custody after a brief pursuit and was involuntarily committed to a hospital for treatment, according to the report.