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Parents drop suit over son�s suicide They had blamed county, hospital for teenager�s death By Chris Bristol The parents of a 14-year-old Medford boy who committed suicide two years ago have dropped a $2 million lawsuit that blamed Jackson County and Rogue Valley Medical Center for not doing enough to help their son. Court records reveal the lawsuit was dismissed in early June at the request of the parents of Rusty Francis, a Hedrick Middle School student who shot himself with one of his father�s guns in the spring of 1998 after repeated brushes with the law. Lawyers for both sides were reluctant Tuesday to discuss the case, which raised questions about parental vs. societal accountability and underscored the county�s continuing appeal to voters for a new juvenile center with shelter space for troubled teens. The boy�s father, Wayne Francis, said his heart just wasn�t in pursuing the case. "Once you go through something like this, enough�s enough," he explained Tuesday. As part of the deal, the defendants agreed to waive legal costs. The teen�s suicide made headlines a month after the fact when it was revealed that a friend who attended North Medford High School also tried to kill himself with rat poison and sleeping pills in what he claimed was a suicide pact with Rusty. News of the pact, as well as rumors the boys and their friends dabbled in Satanism, swept through both schools. Fearing copycats, school officials pulled several students from class for counseling. In their lawsuit, Wayne Francis and Denise Ellis said they went to a number of agencies for help after their son, who had been busted at least 10 times for drugs, trespassing and running away, refused court-ordered drug treatment and skipped private counseling sessions. They said they were always turned away, even after they found evidence of the suicide pact. They said they tried to have the boy arrested and locked up, only to be told he had not committed serious enough crimes. Privately, county officials bristled at the notion they turned their backs on the boy. Their lawyers, meanwhile, sought to have the case dismissed on the grounds that the plaintiffs had failed to specify what laws had been broken. For its part, the hospital objected that it wasn�t responsible because it doesn�t even have a facility for the treatment of mentally disturbed teenagers. The dismissal cleared two other co-defendants, a psychiatrist and a therapist. Although neither side wanted to publicly discuss the rationale for dismissing the case, they agreed on one thing: the need for a new juvenile center. Despite two straight setbacks at the polls, the county plans to seek a third bond measure this November for a new $16.5 million facility. The design calls for 40 detention beds and 16 shelter beds, plus room for offices, treatment space and a courtroom. It would replace the existing 20-bed detention center, which was built in the 1950s. Alan Young, director of county juvenile services, said a recent study calculated that the county needs at least 32 shelter beds. For now, the only shelter in the county is a private 15-bed facility in Talent. Shelter beds are typically reserved for youngsters who are a danger to themselves or others but haven�t committed crimes. "Fourteen or 15 beds shelter beds for a county this size is too few," Young said. "It�s abysmal." Wayne Francis agreed. "If we would have had something like that, my boy would be alive today," he said. "If there�s anything I can do to help these people (pass the bond), I�ll do it." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA