Ohio
Family sues for change after autistic 19-year-old dies from injuries in Ohio jail
Video shows how autistic teen died after 10 hours in Ohio jail
Isaiah Trammell, a 19-year-old with autism spectrum disorder spent 10 harrowing hours in an Ohio jail before he died. His mother, tells his story.
The family of an autistic 19-year-old man who died after his time in the Montgomery County Jail is suing the county and the company that provides medical care in the jail.
Isaiah Trammell, a resident of Lebanon, was arrested after a neighbor called the police, worried about a potential domestic situation since Trammell was yelling on the phone with his uncle. Officers found a warrant from a previous time the police were called for a wellness check, his mother Brandy Abner previously told The Enquirer.
Police then booked Trammell into the Montgomery County Jail, where he began to bang his head as a form of stimming, the self-soothing behaviors people with autism turn to in times of distress. The lawsuit alleges jail staff failed “to provide objectively reasonable medical care” to Trammell, who spent less than 10 hours in the jail before he was taken to the hospital for his head injuries. Trammell was unconscious when he left the jail and spent three days in a coma before he died.
Dying Behind Bars: At least 220 people died in Ohio jails over 4 years
Surveillance video shows Trammell asked for his medication, his clothes, a phone call and a blanket while in the jail. Deputies told Trammell he was “ridiculous,” “embarrassing” and “acting like an ass.” Officers strapped Trammell into a restraint chair two separate times and threatened more time in the chair if he didn’t calm down.
“Defendants intentionally chose to ignore Isaiah’s serious medical and psychiatric needs and sought neither constitutionally appropriate medical care nor a safe environment for him,” attorneys for the Trammell family said in court documents. “Instead, they openly treated him with contempt, goading and mocking him until he foreseeably engaged in escalating acts of self-harm until he eventually lost consciousness and died from his head injuries.”
Trammell’s death drew international attention and his family and local activists have called for better treatment for those with autism in jail.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on the lawsuit. Montgomery County Sheriff Rob Streck previously told The Enquirer that Trammell shouldn’t have been in jail, given his mental health issues.
What happened to Isaiah Trammell?
Trammell told the jail’s medical staff that he was autistic and felt suicidal, according to an investigative report. Though medical staff said he should be provided with a mat and a blanket, he was put on suicide watch in a concrete cell and given only a suicide-resistant smock to wear.
The use of restraints is supposed to be a last resort when someone’s safety is in danger, per Ohio jail policies, but deputies kept Trammell in a restraint chair for an hour after he said he had no intention of harming himself.
“You remember how that restraint chair felt? Remember what the sergeant said? You’re gonna go in for 10 hours next time you go in there. You want to do that?” one officer told Trammell after his first two-hour stretch in the chair.
After Trammell’s death, investigators with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office determined the jail staff did nothing wrong and provided Trammell with appropriate care. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has since said jails should be investigated by an outside agency instead of the same sheriff’s office who runs the jail.
Others have died in custody of the Montgomery County Jail
Trammell was one of 18 deaths the Montgomery County Jail reported to the state between 2020 and 2023. A USA TODAY Network Ohio investigation found that most of the 16,000 people in Ohio jails each day suffer from mental illness.
“Even before Isaiah’s death, Defendant Montgomery County was on notice that people incarcerated at the Montgomery County Jail had been subject to the unconstitutional denial of medical services at the hands of its own employees and NaphCare employees,” the Trammell family’s attorneys wrote in court documents.
Two years after Trammell’s death, 25-year-old Christian Black died after time in a restraint chair while in custody of the Montgomery County Jail.
Black died of “positional asphyxia.” Attorneys for his family said the surveillance video shows that jail staff tasered Black and put him in a headlock while he was in the restraint chair.
The Trammell family’s attorneys said in court documents that the purpose of their lawsuit, filed in March, is to seek change for others incarcerated in the Montgomery County Jail, especially those with autism. The family seeks a trial and is suing for compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorneys’ fees. The court has not yet set a trial date.
Regional politics reporter Erin Glynn can be reached at eglynn@enquirer.com, @ee_glynn on X or @eringlynn on Bluesky.
Out of prison, Indiana’s caviar king back on Ohio River to find fishing holes taken
David Cox, of English, Indiana, says once he began setting his nets again after a two-year prison sentence and a three-year ban on commercial fishing, all of his once-secret spots were taken.
Can you eat fish from the Ohio River?
In 1975, future presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, then governor of Massachusetts, bet 20 pounds of New England cod that the Red Sox would defeat the Reds in the World Series. If things went south for Boston, Ohio governor James Rhodes promised to send Dukakis 10 pounds of Lake Erie perch and 10 pounds of Ohio River catfish. The Reds ended up winning and the cod was sent to the Convalescent Home for Children, in Cincinnati.
At the time, people were still eating catfish from the Ohio without too much concern. The fish were also served at several restaurants along the river.
There were warnings in 1977
But two years later, in 1977, The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission released the results of a study of contaminants found in the tissues of Ohio River fish. They warned anglers in cities such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, Wheeling and Gallipolis that man-made chemicals known as PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, had been discovered in the river fish. Later, high concentrations of mercury were discovered in the fish, too.
Thanks to the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the environmental regulations that followed, the river is now cleaner than it was in the seventies. And it’s still teeming with a variety of fish, including catfish, striped bass, drum and black bass, among other species.
But even though PCBs were banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1979, they are still found in fish, since they remain in the sediment in the bottom of the river. “Organisms live in the sediment and fish feed on them,” Rich Cogen, the executive director of the Ohio River Foundation told The Enquirer. Mercury is also a big problem, according to Cogen.
So the question is: Can you eat fish caught in the Ohio River?
The short answer is yes. But it depends on what species you are eating and where along the river you caught it.
There are also very strict limitations on how frequently you should eat them, according to the web site for the Ohio Sport Fish Consumption Advisory, part of the Ohio Department of Health.
In areas of the river between the Belleville Lock, located 204 miles downstream from the river’s origins in Pittsburgh, to the Indiana border, the advisory agency currently recommends consuming Ohio River fish no more than once a month max. That area includes Adams, Brown, Clermont, Gallia, Hamilton, Lawrence, Meigs and Scioto counties.
Here’s where to check
Recommendations change throughout the year, but you can keep up by visiting the Ohio Department of Health’s Sport Fish Consumption Advisory page, which provides updated information on when certain fish, usually bottom feeders such as carp, are deemed too dangerous to eat at all.
Here’s who should take a pass on Ohio River fish
The agency also warns that people who are more likely to have health effects from eating contaminated fish, includingchildren younger than 15 years old, pregnant women and women who are planning to become pregnant to avoid Ohio River fish altogether.
Just because you have to limit the amount of fish you eat, doesn’t mean the river is a bad place for fishing, as long as you limit your intake or do catch-and-release fishing. Just make sure you have a proper fishing license before casting your line.
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It isn’t over until it’s over. That’s the case for both the UCLA Bruins football program recruiting and for quarterback Brady Edmunds. Edmunds is currently committed to head to Ohio State but he took a visit from UCLA offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy earlier this week.
Kennedy met Edmunds on Thursday despite the fact that the quarterback has been committed to the Buckeyes since December of 2024 but could the UCLA Bruins be making a run at flipping the quarterback?
Edmunds has only had an official visit with Ohio State but could UCLA heave a heat check on the 6’5” quarterback? New UCLA head coach Bob Chesney is off to an unbelievable start to his recruiting with the Bruins and flipping a recruit of Edmunds’ caliber would be his most impressive move yet.
247 Sports has Edmunds as the No. 16 quarterback in the class, which would give UCLA a clear predecessor for Nico Iamaleava whenever the Bruins current starting quarterback decides to head to the professional level.
It’d be a full circle moment for the Bruins, as Edmunds was originally recruited to Ohio State by former UCLA head coach Chip Kelly, who bailed on UCLA to go run the Buckeyes offense. Ohio State is a great spot for a developing quarterback, as the Buckeyes produce tons of NFL talent, especially at the wide receiver position, which would help Edmunds put up some gaudy numbers in Columbus.
Chesney and the Bruins have geography on their side, Edmunds attends Huntington Beach High School in Southern California, which could potentially become a factor if Edmunds views UCLA as a program on the rise that’d be much closer to his friends and family than out in Ohio.
Time will tell if Kennedy’s visit will make a difference but UCLA’s recruiting has made waves in the first offseason under Chesney and the new regime.
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