Newly unsealed court records show a private corrections health care contractor paid more than $1 million to the family of a Bucks County inmate who died of opiate withdrawal complications.
This amount is nearly double what was previously reported.
PrimeCare Medical in Harrisburg settled its claims with the family of Frederick Adami four years ago. But its payout was kept secret until earlier this month, when a federal judge unsealed the documents.
Those records showed that when combined with the $625,000 settlement that the county commissioners approved, the family received $2 million, the highest settlement payout for a wrongful death case in recent Bucks
County memory.
The agreement was released Aug. 5 after this news organization was successful in unsealing the federal court records with pro bono assistance from the Pennsylvania chapter of Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic.
The Adami settlement was the fourth time since 2023 that the two organizations have assisted the Bucks County Courier Times in the release of PrimeCare wrongful death settlements.
Heather Murray, First Amendment Clinic associate director, said the organization is glad to support the newspaper’s efforts to report on wrongful death suits involving some of the state’s “most vulnerable citizens.”
“How wrongful death suits against a government contractor resolve is of great public concern because government business is the public’s business,” said Murray, also managing attorney for the law school’s Local Journalism Project.
Finalized court settlements are important because they’re part of the court record, and those records are subject to constitutional access requirements, said Paula Knudsen Burke, supervising attorney in Pennsylvania for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
When the court seals a settlement, the public is excluded from full accountability and transparency in terms of the spending of public money and understanding how public agencies are operating, Knudsen-Burke said.
“Obtaining the documents directly from the court record resolves any questions about authenticity or reliability,” she added.
The newly unsealed records show that PrimeCare paid the Adami estate a total of $1.37 million.
After attorney fees and costs, the net proceeds were $914,152, according to the newly released court documents.
The wrongful death proceeds were divided among four of his children, and the Survival Act proceeds — $91,415.21 — went to the co-administrators of his estate, records show.
In 2022, the Adami family said that PrimeCare settled with them for $750,000.
Frederick Adami, 52,died less than a day after he was incarcerated on an outstanding domestic relations bench warrant in January 2018 as a result of complications related to opiate withdrawal, according to an autopsy.
His family sued in 2019, alleging that the county and PrimeCare failed to properly monitor and treat Adami despite his worsening medical distress.
Adami was one of four people incarcerated in Bucks County since 2013 who died as a result of complications from opiate detoxification. The last one occurred in October of 2018.
Over the last decade, PrimeCare Medical and Bucks County combined have paid out $4.47 million to settle with the families of five defendants who died while incarcerated, according to unsealed settlement and county records.
County settlements are covered by its liability insurance, but the amount the county must pay out before insurance takes over has tripled between 2020 and 2025 to $1 million per claim in that year, records show.
For 2026-2027, the amount is $750,000 per claim.
While the county-approved settlements are public information under the Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law, private companies such as PrimeCare are excluded from the law, even when they are contracted by a public agency using public money.
PrimeCare routinely requests that courts seal its settlements in the 35 Pennsylvania county jails that contract for its services, according to Prison Legal News, a project of the Human Rights Defense Center.
This year the county is paying PrimeCare $9.45 million for services at the Doylestown Township jail and juvenile detention center. The amount doesn't include out-of-county expenses and catastrophic medical costs that exceed $50,000 per inmate.
The for-profit corrections health care company has provided medical care at the jail since July 2013 and behavioral health services since March 2018.
Previous Bucks County inmate wrongful death settlements
Vallia 'Valene' Karaharisis
Philadelphia resident Valene Karaharisis, 29, was found dead in her cell Sept. 29, 2013, three days after she was incarcerated on a probation violation. An autopsy showed that she died as a result of “sudden death during heroin withdrawal.”
Loretta Lopez, Karaharisis’ mother, sued the county and PrimeCare in 2015, alleging they failed to provide inadequate detox treatment and monitoring.
The suit contended that medical professionals at the jail failed to adequately assess her daughter. There were no records that vital signs were taken or medication observations done between Sept. 26-29, 2013.
The suit also alleged that Karaharisis should have been physically checked on 64 times during the overnight hours before her death, but instead, written corrections records show she was observed only 13 times, a violation of the jail policy.
Bucks County settled with the family for $50,000 in 2016. PrimeCare also paid Lopez $250,000 to settle wrongful death and survival claims, according to settlement documents that the court unsealed in 2024.
Marlene Yarnall
Bensalem resident Marlene Yarnall, 49, died of a sudden cardiac arrest while detoxing from heroin in 2014.
At the jail, Yarnall was on medical watch during the three days after she was picked up on a probation violation. At the time officials said she was taking recommended medications designed to ease withdrawal symptoms.
Her family alleged in a 2016 lawsuit that the jail failed to take proper medical precautions with Yarnall, who previously suffered a heart attack in 2013 while incarcerated in Bucks County jail.
The suit alleged that the jail had prior knowledge of Yarnall’s medical history and it failed to require more aggressive monitoring and follow-up treatment for her withdrawal symptoms.
Bucks County was terminated as a defendant in 2017, but PrimeCare settled its claims with the family in 2017 for $250,000, federal court records show. The amount of the settlement was revealed in court documents after the county missed a deadline for payment and the court intervened.
Charles Freitag
Charles Freitag, 57, a Bensalem postal worker, completed suicide in his jail cell in 2018, one day after a judge sentenced the first-time offender to six to 12 years in state prison for driving his pickup truck into his ex-wife’s house as part of a botched suicide attempt.
His family alleged in its lawsuit that the county and PrimeCare Medical employees ignored Freitag’s recent previous suicide attempts, major depression and failed to properly evaluate and monitor him during the 72 days he was incarcerated.
Prison medical records that were part of the lawsuit show that he was experiencing worsening mental distress and displayed signs that put him at high risk for a suicide attempt.
Bucks County settled its claims with Freitag’s estate in 2022 for $337,500. PrimeCare Medical also paid the family $337,500 to settle its claims, according to records the court unsealed in 2023.
Brittany Harbaugh
Brittany Harbaugh, 28, a Delaware County mother of three, died in October 2018 as a result of complications from opiate withdrawal. She died four days after she was incarcerated in Bucks County on a parole violation.
Her family alleged in its lawsuit against Bucks County and PrimeCare that Harbaugh complained in a phone call hours before her death that she was experiencing severe opiate withdrawal symptoms and chest pain, but she did not receive adequate medical care.
Bucks County settled its claims with the family for $250,000 in 2023. PrimeCare also settled its claims for $1 million, according to documents the court unsealed in 2024.
Crime and courts reporter Jo Ciavaglia can be reached at jciavaglia@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Bucks County contractor paid inmate's family more than $1M | Exclusive
