A series of cascading failures by employees at the Baltimore Central Booking & Intake Center set into motion the murder of 34-year-old Javarick Gantt, who was deaf and used sign language to communicate, a new lawsuit alleges.

Staff at Central Booking ignored or overruled department policies and guidelines before placing Gantt in a cell with Gordon Staron, a dangerous killer who should have never been in general population to begin with, the lawsuit claims. Correctional officers were not at their post overlooking the tier where the two men were housed and later falsified records about security checks that never took place, according to the complaint, which was filed Tuesday in Baltimore County Circuit Court.

That Gantt, who weighed half as much as Staron and had a disability, ended up in a cell with his killer — already accused of an earlier killing at the time — was, according to the complaint, a “complete failure of the system.”

“No one from the state of Maryland has ever apologized to Mr. Gantt’s family, told them who in the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services has been held responsible for Mr. Gantt’s tragic death, or advised them of what, if any, changes have been made to prevent another such needless death,” the complaint said.

The Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services declined to comment on the lawsuit.

For years, the department has refused to explain the circumstances leading up to Gantt’s murder, a high-profile case that sent shock waves through Deaf and disability advocate communities and was personally prosecuted by State’s Attorney Ivan Bates. The department has also declined to fulfill public records requests seeking documents from internal investigations, citing various exemptions.

The wrongful death lawsuit, filed by attorney Andrew Slutkin of Silverman Thompson Slutkin & White, provides the first known details on what the family believes led up to Gantt’s murder.

Despite his disability, Gannt is housed in general population

Gantt, who was born permanently deaf, stood just over 5 feet tall and weighed a little over 100 pounds as an adult, which made him the frequent target of bullies, according to the lawsuit.

“Despite living with these major challenges, Mr. Gantt lived an independent life and was a caring father to his daughter,” the lawsuit said.

In April 2019, Gantt pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge. He had no prior criminal record at the time, and received probation.

Months later, Gantt was charged with violating his probation after he was arrested for another misdemeanor assault as well as third-degree burglary.

While on probation, the lawsuit said, Gantt “struggled to navigate the bureaucracy of the Baltimore City court system and the public transportation that he needed to take to report to his agent.”

He was later served with warrants for failing to appear at his court hearings and check-ins with his probation agent. Gantt was brought to Central Booking in July 2022 and held without bond.

The problems for Gantt started immediately at Central Booking, where he was “improperly screened” despite completing forms documenting his hearing disability and signaling that he required an interpreter, according to the lawsuit.

Supervisors and other employees at the jail failed to provide Gantt with appropriate accommodations for his disability, the lawsuit claims, leaving him unable to communicate in the event of an emergency.

Despite scoring low enough on a screening to classify for a reduced security level, Gantt’s score was overridden by a Central Booking case manger and he was placed in medium-security general population housing, the lawsuit claims.

The listed reason appeared to have been a reference to his assault charges, the lawsuit said, “even though the referenced assault was only a misdemeanor, not a violent felony charge that would have required placement in at least medium security.”

The placement of Gantt in general population “did not take into consideration numerous DPSCS directives,” the lawsuit said, including its medical evaluations manual, which advocates against the practice for people with hearing-related disabilities.

Preying on the vulnerable

In contrast to Gantt, Staron was cleared for release to general population despite numerous red flags laid out in the lawsuit.

For one thing, there was his pending first-degree murder charge for the death of an elderly homeless man at a bus stop. Then there were his mental health diagnoses and “ongoing medication management.”

After entering the jail, Staron was “prescribed and taken off different mental health medications,” exhibited “paranoid behavior” including yelling at other detainees. Later, he assaulted two other people housed in general population, according to the lawsuit.

One of Staron’s victims reported hearing him yell that he had not received his medication for two days, the lawsuit claimed.

In September 2022, Staron went to the emergency room for various injuries, then was returned to Central Booking and once again housed with other detainees, the lawsuit claimed.

After he was reassigned to Cell 3 in B Dorm, Staron’s cellmate requested to be reassigned “for fear that Mr. Staron would harm him,” the lawsuit claimed.

Meanwhile, Gantt was observed around that time at the window of his own cell, “trying to call for help,” and communicating through sign language that his cellmate had been bullying him, according to the lawsuit.

Despite all of this, Gantt was reassigned to Cell 3 with Staron on September 30, 2022, even though officials at the jail knew about Staron’s violent behavior and “were fully aware that Mr. Gantt would not be able to call out for help if attacked by Mr. Staron.”

An abandoned post and falsified documents

On the evening of Oct. 8, 2022, there should have been two correctional officers working at the B Dorm, due to the fact that one of the tiers was for “lock-up,” or detainees facing internal infractions, according to the lawsuit.

But there were no correctional officers inside the dorm hours later, at the time of Gantt’s murder, the lawsuit said. Had one been there, they would have heard the sounds of a physical struggle later reported by several other detainees.

One of the correctional officers named in the lawsuit, which also names as defendants other officers and various supervisors, said she verified Gantt was alive at about 11:30 p.m. the night before he was killed when she shook his leg.

In the early morning hours the next day, numerous detainees heard loud noises and grunts coming from Cell 3, the lawsuit claimed, adding that no correctional officers were around to respond to the disturbance.

Gantt was not discovered until he was found by another detainee who was handing out breakfast the next morning. That individual then alerted other officers and reported hearing the loud noises earlier that morning, the lawsuit said. Gantt was found dead at approximately 6:27 a.m.

The lawsuit claims that correctional officers failed to do security rounds at B-dorm throughout the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift and “falsely documented that they had conducted security rounds in security tour sheets.”

In total, the lawsuit blames corrections officials at the jail, concluding that they caused Gantt’s death by failing to properly staff the facility and monitor its detainees, and failing to have a “proper system in place for a disabled inmate like Mr. Gantt to communicate if he needed help.”

The lawsuit points to systemic issues at the jail, including low staffing, ongoing struggles with medical and mental health care, and rising assaults.

In an interview with the Banner, Rick Barry Sr., Gantt’s father, said he would like his son’s case “to be an example for the hearing-impaired community of Baltimore and others.”

“My heart is still broken,” he said. “And I’m still searching for answers.”

Slutkin, the attorney, said the corrections department has not cooperated with the investigation, which has been “very frustrating to the family.”

“The family wants and deserves answers, and they’re filing this lawsuit to get that, and to ensure that this doesn’t happen to someone else,” Slutkin said.