Union County Settles Suit Over Youth Detention Suicide

Officials have agreed to pay $780,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the mother of a 17-year-old youth who committed suicide in 2003 at the Union County Juvenile Detention Center in Elizabeth.Eddie Sinclair hanged himself in his cell with a bed sheet looped over a fire sprinkler the state had ordered removed months earlier. His death drew attention to conditions at detention center, which advocates decried as overcrowded and dirty.Eddie's mother, Yolanda Padilla, said the money does little to erase the loss of her son, who had been arrested for violating his probation after being charged with stealing a bicycle. Eddie committed suicide less than 12 hours after arriving at the center."I'm just tired," she said. "I don't think there is any justice, I'm just ready to get it over with."