Reservist's death leads to lawsuit

COLUMBUS (AP) -- The mother of an Army reservist has sued the city health department, saying the agency's actions to deny him a promotion led to his suicide after he returned from Afghanistan.
The lawsuit filed by Susan Coats seeks at least $25,000 in damages. She is the administrator of the estate of her son, Lt. Brandon Ratliff.
Coats, on leave from the department, said she sued because she wants the department to admit it helped cause Ratliff's death.
"This is the only option I have left to get them to acknowledge what they've done," she said.
Ratliff complained that he was promised a promotion and a raise in September 2002 before he left for a nine-month stint in Afghanistan, but the job was filled while he was away. When he returned, he was forced to resume his old job, which paid $4,000 less than the $35,000 a year paid by the job that came with the promotion.
Columbus Atty. Richard Pfeiffer said he had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment.
Ratliff died last March. In e-mails to The Columbus Dispatch and his mother before he shot himself, Ratliff wrote that he couldn't find a lawyer to take his case after losing the promotion.
"I guess the city knows this ... and they have won," he wrote.
A report completed by the city the next month said Mayor Michael Coleman ordered the department to give Ratliff the raise, but no one told him.
"This has been so traumatic," Coats said. "The thought of Brandon with a gun to his head never goes away from me."