The city of Kent faces a federal civil lawsuit for its alleged “negligence” and “deliberate indifference to medical needs” in the death of a 45-year-old female inmate in April 2025 in the city jail.
The suit was filed May 8 in U.S. District Court on behalf of the estate of Rena Flaherty, through her mother Teresa Flaherty, represented by Connelly Law Offices, of Tacoma.
Rena Flaherty died on April 22, 2025 at the city jail, 1230 Central Ave. S., of “dehydration and ketoacidosis, opiate withdrawal,” and her manner of death was natural, according to a May 14, 2025 report by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office…