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Suicide victim's parents sue county, hospital BY CHRIS BRISTOL The parents of a 14-year-old Medford boy who took his own life last year have sued Jackson County and Rogue Valley Medical Center for failing to stop him. In a case that raises troubling legal questions about accountability, Denise Ellis and Wayne Francis contend the county and the hospital were negligent in the treatment and care of their son, Rusty Francis, who had drug and mental problems and shot himself March 9, 1998, with one of his father's guns. The lawsuit, filed Monday in Jackson County Circuit Court, seeks more than $2 million in damages. Wayne Francis told the Mail Tribune Friday that he and his ex-wife decided to sue not for what the county and the hospital did but what they didn't do. They say their son needed help and didn't get any, even after he was arrested for possession of drugs and they found evidence of a suicide pact with another boy. And, they say, their son was not alone. "This is something that's gone on too long in this county," Francis said. "There's too many kids out there who need help and nobody's doing anything for them. It has nothing do with money or notoriety. We just want something done for the kids." The suicide made belated headlines when a friend tried to kill himself with rat poison and sleeping pills in what he claimed was a suicide pact with Rusty, who had committed suicide a month earlier after cutting classes at Hedrick Middle School. News of the pact -- as well as rumors that Rusty and his friends dabbled in Satanism -- swept through the school and North Medford High, where the other boy attended classes. School officials, fearing copycats, pulled several students out of classes for counseling after the second incident. Rusty was busted for drug possession a few months before his suicide, and his parents say they went to a number of different agencies seeking help after the boy refused court-ordered drug treatment and skipped private counseling sessions. By then, he was huffing gas and skipping school. Friends said he was also drinking and smoking dope. In each case, his parents say they were told Rusty was too young for inpatient care or no beds were available or it was somebody else's jurisdiction. They even tried to have him arrested, only to be told Rusty had committed no serious crimes. The lawsuit names the county generally and three county agencies specifically: the sheriff's office, the mental health division of Health and Human Services, and the juvenile department. In addition to the hospital, Dr. David Lloyd and therapist R.W. Boye were named as co-defendants. A spokeswoman for RVMC said the hospital had not been served with a copy of the lawsuit as of Friday. County counsel Steve Rinkle said the same thing, and both declined comment. Francis said accountability was at the heart of the lawsuit. He denied that his son's access to guns in his own home was part of the problem. "That's not the issue," he said. "The issue is why it happened. There's too many kids out there crying for help. That's the issue." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA