A Georgia sheriff on Monday announced the resignations of top jail staff amid an investigation into the death of a man in a bedbug-infested cell in the jail’s psychiatric wing.
Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat said in a news release that the three members of his executive team had more than 65 years of collective experience in law enforcement and running a jail. That kind of experience can be invaluable but can also cause “complacency, stagnation & settling for the status quo,” the release said.
“It’s clear to me that it’s time, past time, to clean house,” Labat said, adding that he decided changes were necessary after reviewing preliminary evidence in the internal investigation into the September death of Lashawn Thompson, 35.
Photos from Thompson’s filthy cell spread across social media last week and prompted widespread outrage, including from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center, which tweeted, “the word inhumane doesn’t suffice in describing the way #LashawnThompson’s life was disregarded and degraded in a Fulton County jail.”
At a meeting over the weekend, Labat asked for and received the resignations of the chief jailer, assistant chief jailer and assistant chief jailer in the criminal investigative division, the release said.
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A lawyer for Thompson’s family last week said jail staff did nothing to address Thompson’s deteriorating health in the weeks before his death, and he called for a criminal investigation. Thompson was arrested June 12 on a misdemeanor battery charge and was booked into the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, where he died three months later.
Attorney Michael Harper called the conditions at the jail “deplorable,” holding up photos of a dirty, trash-strewn cell that he said was “not fit for a diseased animal.” Photos released by Harper show Thompson’s body covered in bugs. The medical examiner’s report lists the cause of death as “undetermined” but notes a…
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