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The release of a video Wednesday showing Luzerne County inmate Shaheen Mackey in a restraint chair raises questions about the moments leading up to that situation.
				Mackey&rsquo;s estate summarized its account in a court document also filed Wednesday, saying the 41-year-old Berwick man suffered a seizure and became confused and disoriented after he arrived at the county prison on June 6, 2018.
				&ldquo;Soon thereafter, Mr. Mackey was approached by a correctional officer while in his cell awaiting medical treatment and slammed to the floor, where he began foaming from the mouth and began to seize again,&rdquo; it said.
				Mackey was &ldquo;jumped on and beat on&rdquo; by several correctional officers under the assumption Mackey was resisting, it said.
				The Wednesday filing asked the court to schedule a hearing to approve a $3 million settlement from the county in the civil wrongful death suit.
				DA&rsquo;s account
				A different account of the pre-restraint scenario was reiterated Wednesday by county District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis based on her office&rsquo;s 2018 investigation finding there was no evidence of criminal intent to harm Mackey.
				An inmate witness said he screamed for help in fear of his life because Mackey was &ldquo;violently attempting to chew and rip his fingernails off, ripping out his own hair and spitting,&rdquo; with another inmate verifying that account, she said.
				Accompanied by two medical assistants, a correctional officer lost his radio unsuccessfully attempting to calm and restrain Mackey, prompting an inmate to race to the command center requesting help for the officer, she said.
				The witness reported seven correctional officers responded and continued to have difficulty restraining Mackey, with several commenting on his &ldquo;incredible&rdquo; and &ldquo;unreal&rdquo; strength, she said.
				Mackey was never choked or struck &ldquo;in any way by anyone,&rdquo; the office said. Salavantis also added the investigation uncovered a social media video of Mackey discussing and displaying a diagnosis he received indicating that he has &ldquo;violent tendencies&rdquo; and &ldquo;homicidal outbursts&rdquo; that have required evaluation and intervention by police or an emergency room.
				Litigation assertion
				Mackey&rsquo;s estate presented a more detailed version of the events in its December 2019 complaint.
				The county never got to the stage of providing a complete defensive response to the litigation allegations because the lawsuit is still in discovery.
				The complaint filed by the Mackey estate asserts:
				Mackey had been lodged in the Columbia County Correctional Facility on June 5, the day before he was transported to Luzerne County.
				During his medical intake at the Columbia County facility, Mackey informed the medical staff he had a seizure disorder, and his medical records there indicated he had epilepsy.
				His medical questionnaire at Luzerne County &ldquo;simply indicates that every answer was &lsquo;No.&rsquo;&rdquo; The complaint alleges the prison &ldquo;falsely answered the questionnaire, without consulting with Mr. Mackey.&rdquo;
				Confused and disoriented from a seizure, Mackey stumbled into the wrong cell during lockdown, eventually resulting in a correctional officer taking him to the correct one.
				Inside his cell, Mackey was &ldquo;acting strange&rdquo; and &ldquo;delusional&rdquo; and talking to himself.
				After multiple calls for medical assistance from Mackey&rsquo;s cellmate, the correctional officer responded and was informed by Mackey that he had a seizure.
				When nursing staff arrived to take Mackey&rsquo;s vitals, Mackey was &ldquo;paranoid and did not know what was going on.&rdquo; He tried to walk to the door to meet the nurses, and the correctional officer pulled him back and &ldquo;slammed him to the ground.&rdquo;
				It said Mackey was &ldquo;foaming from the mouth and began to seize again.&rdquo; Interpreting his actions as resistance, multiple correctional officers entered the cell and jumped on top of him.
				He was handcuffed and shackled and carried out of his cell and down the stairs to the first floor for placement in a restraint chair.
				Video&rsquo;s focus
				The <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/795386/very-disturbing-to-watch-prison-restraint-video-posted-to-social-media" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">23-minute video </a>focused on the period when Mackey was in the chair and became unresponsive. He was transported from the prison to Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, where he died two days later.
				Filed by the Dyller Law Firm in Wilkes-Barre, the settlement petition contains a certification from Attorney Barry H. Dyller that the county&rsquo;s legal counsel concurs with the motion requesting a conference.
				County Chief Solicitor Romilda Crocamo said this concurrence to release the settlement in the stated amount is not an &ldquo;admission of wrongdoing&rdquo; or an agreement with the petition&rsquo;s account of what occurred.
				Crocamo also has stressed the county&rsquo;s settlement was not an attempt to silence Mackey&rsquo;s family because the county made no requests to the court for a gag order or any bans on the release of a video.
				Dyller said his firm and the clients made it clear to the county at the start of settlement discussions that they would not agree to any confidentiality of video or any material related to the case.
				&ldquo;We all want the truth out there,&rdquo; he said.
				Dyller&rsquo;s firm is set to receive $1.2 million, or 40% of the settlement proceeds, under the fee agreement with plaintiff Rasheda Hammonds, who is administrator of Mackey&rsquo;s estate. The law firm is waiving reimbursement of costs incurred pursuing the case and related to estate administration, the petition said.

More questions on Mackey restraint