Trenton to pay $350K to settle suit claiming negligence in death of woman in lockup

TRENTON -- The City Council voted Thursday to pay $350,000 to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed after a Hamilton woman hung herself in the Trenton police lockup in 2008.

Loretta Klank died on March 27, 2008. She was 47 years old.

Klank's sister, Shirley Hafer, filed a suit on behalf of her sister's estate in 2013, in Mercer County Superior Court.

In it, attorneys Robin Lord and Clifford Bidlingmaier III, argued Klank was wrongly arrested and imprisoned, and then police officers were negligent in her custody.

The officers, the suit said, did not perform visual inspections of the her in the cell, and improperly allowed her to keep a piece of clothing she used to hang herself.

Read more: http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2017/03/trenton_paying_350k_to_family_of_woman_who_hung_he.html