Athens woman sues Athens-Clarke County, Clarke sheriff over son's jailhouse death
http://onlineathens.com/mobile/2016-01-25/athens-woman-sues-athens-clarke-county-clarke-sheriff-over-sons-jailhouse-death
An Athens woman has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Athens-Clarke County, Sheriff Ira Edwards and several of his deputies for the death of her son at the Clarke County Jail in 2013.
Tiffany Cooper alleges in the lawsuit that jail officials repeatedly ignored requests by her 22-year-old son to be taken to the infirmary for chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness and other symptoms he was experiencing prior to being found dead in his cell.
An autopsy found no signs of foul play in the death of Marcus Sanchez Cooper, or any drugs or alcohol in his system, and indicated he died of “possible arrhythmia,” according to the lawsuit.
The county and sheriff were aware of at least two previous cases of prisoners dying after being denied medical attention for cardiac-related complaints, yet still failed to provide adequate medical care for prisoners at the jail, the lawsuit alleges.
“The failure to properly train and supervise jail personnel in the proper procedures in dealing with medical complaints show a deliberate and conscious indifference...to the constitutionally mandated requirement that incarcerated individuals receive appropriate medical case,” the lawsuit states.
At the time of his death, Cooper was in jail because he was arrested for a non-violent probation violation, having tested positive for marijuana. On the evening of Dec. 19, 2013, he “continuously pled with the on duty deputy sheriff/prison guards to be taken to the Athens-Clarke County Jail infirmary located at the jail,” the lawsuit states. “The guards refused to honor Cooper’s requests.”
Those requests allegedly were witnessed by several other prisoners, as they were made by Cooper to deputies Michael Davis and Richard Lowery, who are personally named as defendants in the lawsuit, as well as unknown deputies who are identified in the lawsuit as John Does 1-10.
“All such requests for a visit to the jail infirmary made by Cooper...were ignored by all the aforementioned guards,” the lawsuit alleges.
After Cooper returned to his cell from having breakfast at about 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 21, 2013, Cooper was seen lying on his bed in the same position and unmoving, the lawsuit states. While dinner was being served some seven hours later, at 5:30, several prisoners asked Davis to check on Cooper, but the deputy “refused to at first.”
Cooper’s cell mate then “proceeded to go into the cell to wake up Cooper and found Cooper to be unresponsive, cold and stiff,” the lawsuit states. The cell mate then alerted the deputy, and “only at that time did Prison Guard Michael Davis proceed to check on Cooper,” according to the lawsuit.
The jail nurse who responded to the cell determined Cooper, based on rigor mortis, had been dead for six to eight hours, the lawsuit states.
During a subsequent coroner’s inquest, the nurse testified she was not aware of Cooper’s complaints that he was feeling ill, which “lends credence to the fact that Cooper’s request for medical intervention went ignored by the guards,” the lawsuit alleges.
“Over a period of two days prior to his death, Cooper complained to guards in front of witnesses that he was having chest pains, shortness of breath and symptoms that would justify a trip to the jail infirmary at the very least,” the lawsuit states.