KEY POINTS
Social workers called police on Sean Harris, 19, during a visit.
Dozens of police showed up and surrounded the family's Central Nyack home.
Three hours later, they entered the home and found Harris unconscious. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
The family of Sean Harris, who died May 30 after Clarkstown police engaged him in an hours-long standoff at his Central Nyack home, intends to sue the County of Rockland and Clarkstown Police Department.
A Notice of Claim asserts false imprisonment, assault, battery, wrongful death, negligence, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, deliberate indifference to medical care and denial of medical care. Clarkstown received the notice Nov. 29 and the county of Rockland Nov. 30.
The notice also cites civil rights violations and says the county and town should be held liable together for the actions and inactions of each.
Sean Harris' family seeks answers:Social workers called cops on teen; now he's dead
"It wasn't a dangerous situation until they made it one," said Randolph McLaughlin, one of the family's attorneys, along with Debra Cohen. They are co-chairs of the Civil Rights Practice Group of Newman Ferrara LLP in Manhattan and Pace University law professors.
The claim is on behalf of Kevin Adams, Sean Harris' older brother and administrator of his estate.
In addition to the county and town leadership, the notice cites unnamed Clarkstown police officers and supervisors and two unnamed county behavioral health workers.
County officials declined to comment on open litigation; Clarkstown officials did not respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, the New York State Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation is conducting a preliminary assessment of the May 30 incident that brought scores of Clarkstown Police to Sean Harris' home and ended with the 19-year-old being declared dead later that night at Montefiore Nyack Hospital.
Why were social workers there?
Sean Harris' mother, Judy Adams, had contacted Rockland County's Behavioral Health Team, seeking support for her youngest son.
Her goal: to find opportunities for Harris to socialize in ways that tapped into his intellect and interests. He had studied engineering at SUNY Rockland Community College, was a curious cook who liked to try new recipes with unusual ingredients, and had been a top fencer in school. "I just wanted him to go outside the house and venture and do a little bit more," she said.
Judy Adams had accessed mental health supports for her son before and Sean Harris had participated in his care; she had once worked as a therapy aide at Rockland Psychiatric Center. They knew how the system should work.
The two social workers who came to the home on May 30 worked for an Orange County-based nonprofit called Access: Supports for Living, which was contracted by Rockland County to provide services for adolescents.
It was their first time meeting Harris.
What happened May 30?
While the social workers were at their home, Judy Adams had what she described as a verbal exchange with her son, who wanted to order himself a new cellphone. She said the discussion had ended with them both laughing after she asked Sean who would pay for the new phone and he said she would.
The social workers, meanwhile, had gone outside and called Clarkstown police.
Police kept responding to the small Cape Cod. About 60 ended up on the residential street in the heart of the hamlet, including SWAT and canine teams.
At some point, police used beanbags to shoot out the front storm door. They called it "less lethal impact munition." Glass shattered everywhere. Harris, who was in the home's small entryway, was hit in the abdomen and fled into the house.
Some three hours after the incident began, police entered the home and reported finding Harris unconscious on the bathroom floor. They said there were pill bottles around him.
He was taken to Montefiore Nyack Hospital where he was declared dead.
An autopsy report has yet to be released, McLaughlin said, so Harris' cause of death has yet to be determined.
The Rockland County Medical Examiner's Office and the county declined requests for autopsy information from the USA Today Network, stating that autopsy information is not released to the public.
‘Snow ball’ into ‘avalanche’
The family noticed the social workers who got police involved in the first place had left before the incident was resolved and before they knew if their client was safe.
"This is a snowball that the social workers started," McLaughlin said, "and they left and it turned into an avalanche."
Police reported the social workers said they had witnessed Harris "destroying items with a baseball bat, and threatened to kill his mother."
Kevin Adams said the bat was a small T-ball sized aluminum bat that he used in childhood.
Judy Adams denied that anything was damaged or that any threat took place. "I was not afraid of him," she said in a recent interview with the USA Today Network.
Black and afraid
Judy Adams surmised the two social workers, one white and one Latina, were the ones afraid. She and Harris are Black.
Kevin Adams, a father of two who studied criminal justice at the University of Pittsburgh, questioned the social workers' training, their cultural competency and their understanding of their power in the positions they held.
"They are taking advantage of a single older Black woman and a younger boy who just needed help," he said.
The only one who had the right to be afraid that evening was Sean, his older brother said.
"When is a little Black boy allowed to be afraid?" he asked. "How do people get appointed in these positions in the first place?"
‘Siege mentality’
Legal action, McLaughlin said, can help the family find answers and effect change.
"They don’t want another family to have to go through what they are going through because police officers aren’t trained and social workers don’t know how to handle a situation they find themselves in and rely on the police," he said.
McLaughlin said the professionals' actions the evening of May 30 created an inevitable outcome.
"Before the police encountered him, he wasn't in any danger at all," McLaughlin maintains. It was law enforcement's "siege mentality" that "pushed him over the edge."
Judy Adams recalled what one social worker said before she left the scene of the ongoing standoff: "They’re not going to shoot him.”
But the outcome was still the end of Sean Harris' life.
The New York State Office of Mental Health offers a mental health program directory at omh.ny.gov. Resources include:
Immediate medical assistance: Dial 911.
Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Dial 988 or https://988lifeline.org/
New York State Domestic Violence Hotline: Dial 1-800-942-6906
Crisis Text Line: Text "Got5" to 741-741
Frontline worker: Text “FRONTLINENY” to 741-741 for specialized support
Nancy Cutler writes about People & Policy for lohud.com and the USA Today Network New York. Reach her at ncutler@lohud.com; follow her at @nancyrockland on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Threads.