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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; The family of a Berwick man who died after an incident at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility in 2018 has filed a suit against the county and numerous employees at the prison, saying they are responsible for his death.</p><p>Shaheen Mackey&#8217;s estate filed the suit earlier this week through their attorney, Theron Solomon of the Wilkes-Barre based Dyller Law Firm.</p><p>Mackey, 41, died at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital on June 8, two days after being brought to the county lockup on a warrant related to a protection from abuse petition.</p><p>Mackey&#8217;s cause of death was officially listed as natural causes after his body was examined by forensic pathologist Dr. Gary Ross, but his family began to ask questions as Mackey&#8217;s body was covered in bruises at the time of his death.</p><p>In the suit, the family is claiming Mackey&#8217;s death came about after employees at the facility failed to understand he was having a seizure, with the suit saying he suffered from epilepsy.</p><p>The suit says, though, that the county prison failed to document any of Mackey&#8217;s medical conditions.</p><p>Solomon writes in the suit that Mackey was suffering from a seizure, and, disoriented, wandered into the wrong cell during a lockdown.</p><p>He allegedly began acting delusional, which caused correctional officers to restrain him, use stun guns on him, shackle him and even administer Narcan, despite later blood tests allegedly revealing Mackey was on no drugs at the time of his death.</p><p>&#8220;Instead of treating the situation as the medical emergency that it was, the correctional officers treated Mr. Mackey&#8217;s convulsions with more physical force,&#8221; the suit says.</p><p>Correctional officers allegedly used the stun guns on Mackey more than 20 times, draining their batteries.</p><p>Numerous prison employees are all named as defendants in the suit, along with Wellpath, a company based in Nashville, Tenn., that provides healthcare services at prisons.</p><p>The Luzerne County District Attorney&#8217;s Office previously cleared the prison of any wrongdoing in Mackey&#8217;s death.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Tati Mackey holds photographs of her father Shaheen Mackey.   Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_TTL06xx18TatiMackey_2CMYK.jpg</photo0><caption0>Tati Mackey holds photographs of her father Shaheen Mackey.   Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Patrick Kernan</p><p>pkernan@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div>

Family of inmate files suit after 2018 prison death