GUILDERLAND — Four months after her son’s suicide in Albany County’s jail, Maryanne Rappaport says she has not yet decided whether she will file a lawsuit.

Mrs. Rappaport said her other children will have the biggest influence on whether she decides to sue.

Adam Rappaport was arrested on Oct. 16, 2014 for two attempted burglaries in Guilderland and was found dead in his cell two days later.

Rappaport struggled with heroin addiction, and his mother believes that his death could have been prevented if the Guilderland Police Department, the Albany County sheriff, and the jail had communicated about her son’s drug problem and suicidal tendencies and treated him as an addict.

Mrs. Rappaport said she is committed to policy reform at the jail, and, to that end, she has considered a lawsuit, but not yet filed one.

In order to keep the window of opportunity open for a suit, she had to file a notice of claim within 90 days of her son’s death.

On Jan. 13, she filed a notice of claim against the town of Guilderland, Albany County, and Sheriff Craig Apple, through her attorney, Kevin Luibrand.

Filing the notice will give her a year to decide whether she wants to go forward with a lawsuit.

“My eldest son wants Apple to be penalized,” she said. “My daughter just wants peace and for this never to happen to anyone else.”

Mrs. Rappaport said she is in no hurry to decide on the lawsuit. The notice of claim says that Mrs. Rappaport and her deceased son “sustained damages for pain and suffering and lost income in an amount exceeding $1,000,000.”

“None of us even want the money,” Mrs. Rappaport said. “If we did end up suing and getting it, it would probably be donated out.”

Mrs. Rappaport said she has regularly been donating money to a shelter in Albany where her son had stayed and received help.

Mrs. Rappaport had turned her son over to the Guilderland Police after hearing his description on the television news as a suspect for two attempted burglaries. She turned him in, she said, because she was worried about him and wanted to keep him safe.

She said she told the police that he was a heroin addict and that he might be suicidal.

Mrs. Rappaport said her son had called his father after being arrested and brought to the jail, and that he sounded optimistic and expressed his desire to change. He also wrote a letter, which was not received until after his death, in which he said he felt hopeful.

Just one day after writing the letter, he hanged himself.

Mrs. Rappaport wonders why he was not being watched for signs of detoxification and what could have happened in the hours separating his writing the letter and his death.

The notice of claim states “...the town of Guilderland did not notify the County of Albany and Craig Apple as Sheriff of the County of Albany regarding the information about” Adam Rappaport’s heroin withdrawal, and had no policy for aiding inmates “who had consumed heroin, were in heroin withdrawal and/or were suicidal.”

Captain Curtis Cox of the Guilderland Police Department told The Enterprise, in November, that the department had notified the court that Rappaport needed a drug and mental-health referral, and the court notified the jail with a written report.

The jail’s superintendent, Christian Clark, said then that it is part of the jail’s procedure to look for information about the inmate from the arresting agency, but that he didn’t know “whether that information was passed on or not.”

The notice of claim also states that the suicide assessment for Adam Rappaport “was administered by an individual without sufficient training or experience....” and asserts he was therefore “not placed under supervision....”

Rappaport had been screened for suicide, like all inmates, Clark said, and had not indicated he was suicidal. He also said Rappaport had a physical examination looking for signs of withdrawal and did not show any, so no further action was recommended.

If he had shown signs of detoxification, he could have been treated through the jail’s medical department, said Clark. (The full story, with views from the county sheriff, Guilderland police, county jail superintendent, and Mrs. Rappaport, is online at altamontenterprise.com.)

Still, Mrs. Rappaport feels like her son fell through the cracks, and that, even if he passed the jail’s screenings, the notification from the police department that he was a suicidal addict should have held more weight.

The only reason she is considering a lawsuit, she said, is to effect change in the system so that no one else will have to go through the pain and suffering she has endured.

She said she was disturbed by the top front-page article in the Times Union on Monday, Feb. 23, that stated she was “suing for pain and suffering and more than $1 million in lost income.”

She said the Times Union, which stated she could not be reached for comment, had not tried to reach her, and, after the story ran, when she contacted the reporter, Keshia Clukey, she was told they did not have a working phone number for her.

When The Enterprise contacted Clukey, she said she would defer to her editor. Rex Smith, vice president and editor at the Times Union, called The Enterprise Wednesday evening, Feb. 25, and said a correction would run in the next day’s Times Union; it did. He further noted that the top of the story cites the notice of claim on which the article is based and the error occurs at the end.

Asked why the paper ran the story on the notice of claim now, Smith said, “We are later on the story than we wish to be.” He also said, “It is a piece of the larger tragedy of heroin in our community,” which the Times Union has covered in its “scourge of heroin” series.

Smith said reporter Clukey had been “in occasional contact” with Maryanne Rappaport’s brother since October and “wanted to respect the family’s request to grieve.” He went on, “Keshia came across these documents last week” and left a voice-mail message for Mrs. Rappaport’s brother. The only number she had for Mrs. Rappaport, he said, was disconnected.

“I’m sorry there is an error in the story,” Smith said, adding, “I’m surprised you think it’s worth a story.”  He concluded of Mrs. Rappaport, “I hope we can talk to her.”

Sheriff Apple told The Enterprise last week that he was not aware that Mrs. Rappaport had not actually filed her lawsuit.

“We are almost positive that even with the threat of a lawsuit, they will change,” Mrs. Rappaport said. “They will not do this again.”

— Melissa Hale-Spencer contributed comments from Rex Smith

Updated on March 5, 2015.