SCHOHARIE COUNTY SETTLES SUICIDE CLAIM.(Local)

Byline: John Caher Staff writer

Schoharie County has agreed to pay $55,000 to the foster father of a 19-year-old man who hanged himself in the county jail.

Surrogate Judge Dan Lamont this month approved the settlement between the county, Sheriff Harvey E. Stoddard and Ron Maurice of Richmondville, Schoharie County. Maurice's foster son, Thomas Simmons, killed himself in the Schoharie County Jail on May 4, 1983, shortly after his arrest on charges of stealing a hunting dog.

Maurice, who had cared for Simmons since he was an infant, sued the county, Stoddard, deputies Gregory Flanagan and Brian Hulbert and county psychologist Norman Goldman of …