State Sen. R. Creigh Deeds settled a wrongful-death lawsuit brought over the suicide of his son, Austin “Gus” Deeds. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
By Laura Vozzella    Published in The Washington Post 

RICHMOND — Virginia state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds has settled a wrongful-death lawsuit against a former employee of a public mental-health agency that failed to find a hospital bed for his mentally ill son, who in 2013 stabbed the senator before killing himself.

Deeds (D-Bath), who was his party’s 2009 nominee for governor, settled the lawsuit for $950,000, his attorneys announced Wednesday. He had originally sought $6 million.

“My son is dead. No amount of money can make that right, bring him back or fill the hole in my heart,” Deeds said in a statement. “Our nation is built on personal responsibility. The legal process, which relies on financial damages, is the means by which that notion of personal responsibility is enforced. It’s not a perfect process.”

Filed in Bath County Circuit Court, the suit alleged that the state, the Rockbridge Area Community Services Board, and mental-health evaluator Michael Gentry exhibited gross negligence and medical malpractice by mishandling a crucial six-hour window for admitting Deeds’s son on Nov. 18, 2013.