A mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit after her son died in Alabama, alleging that the man was left naked in jail for days until he was transported “limp” and “not alert and conscious” to a hospital.
Tony Mitchell was a pretrial detainee at the Walker County Jail from Jan. 12 until his death Jan. 26, according to a federal complaint filed Monday in the U.S District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
Mitchell’s mother filed the lawsuit after a corrections employee showed her surveillance video of her son’s time in custody that contradicted what she had been told by officials, the suit said.
“Although the medical examiner has not yet released the autopsy report, it is clear that Tony’s death was wrongful, the result of horrific, malicious abuse and mountains of deliberate indifference,” the suit said.
Mitchell’s death is being investigated by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. The Walker County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment to NBC News on Wednesday.
The suit accuses jail staff of looking on and chatting by Mitchell’s open cell door, “entertained” as he “languished naked and dying of hypothermia.”
Mitchell was taken into custody after a family member asked officials to perform a wellness check, noting he might be a danger to himself or others, according to Facebook posts from the Walker County Sheriff’s Office at the time.
Mitchell fired a gun while deputies were on scene and was charged with attempted murder, the sheriff’s office said.
According to the lawsuit, Mitchell’s cousin, Steve, had gone to the man’s home and noticed that he appeared emaciated and unwell. Mitchell, who had recently lost his father and had a history of drug addiction, told his cousin he believed his stillborn baby brother was in the attic and that there were portals to the afterlife in the home, the suit states.
“Steve realized immediately that his cousin, having lost around a hundred pounds from his healthy weight, having lived evidently in complete isolation during…
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