Alabama
Alabama man jailed in ‘the freezer’ died of homicide due to hypothermia, records show
An Alabama inmate with “serious mental and psychiatric needs” was placed in a concrete drunk tank known as “the freezer” before he later died from hypothermia in a death now ruled a homicide, state records show.
Anthony Don Mitchell died Jan. 26, 2023, while in the custody of the Walker County Sheriff’s Department after “spending fourteen days incarcerated under horrendous conditions” at the Walker County Jail, according to an amended complaint filed in a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
The jail is in the city of Jasper about 40 miles northwest of Birmingham.
According to the 53-page suit filed by his mother, Margaret Mitchell, corrections officers at the jail purposely exposed her 33-year-old son to freezing temperatures in the tank over a 24-period.
The suit, filed last February, also” claims they denied Mitchell medication, medical treatment and access to water or a toilet.
Mitchell’s death certificate, obtained by USA TODAY, shows he died as a result of hypothermia as well as “sepsis resulting from infections injuries obtained during incarceration and medical neglect.”
On Monday, Walker County Coroner Joey Vick told USA TODAY Mitchell’s death has been ruled a homicide.
“Tony’s death was wrongful, the result of horrific, malicious abuse and mountains of deliberate indifference, “Jon Goldfarb, an attorney representing Mitchell’s family, wrote in the suit.
As of Monday, no criminal charges had been filed against any off the defendants, Goldfarb told USA TODAY.
Sheriff, officers and nurses named defendants
The suit names defendants including Walker County Sheriff Nick Smith, jail Administrator Justin White, more than a dozen jail correction officers, a nurse practitioner, a nurse and an investigator.
Randy McNeill, an attorney representing the sheriff and the corrections officers told USA TODAY he could not comment on the case “because of the ongoing investigation.”
Attorneys for the remaining defendants could not immediately be reached, but according to a motion filed in response to the compliant, the sheriff’s office and its affiliated parties deny the allegations.
“The defendants do not think they did anything wrong,” Goldfarb told USA TODAY Monday via email.
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‘Portals to heaven and portals to hell’
According to the lawsuit, Mitchell lived “in complete isolation’ and suffered from “serious medical and psychiatric needs including but not limited to severe drug addiction, psychosis, and malnourishment.”
At the time of his death, Mitchell was being held at the jail after being arrested during a welfare check, when shots were fired at deputies as they were called to Mitchell’s home for what family members believed to be “a mental break down.”
On the day he was taken to jail, a cousin called 911 for help, the suit continues, because Mitchell was in serious need of psychiatric help, “spouting delusions about portals to heaven and portals to hell.”
When deputies arrived at the home, the suit reads, Mitchell brandished a handgun, fired one shot towards officers then fled into nearby woods.
A black spray painted face
When deputies found Mitchell in the woods, his face was covered with a black substance, the suit continues.
When he arrived at the jail, Mitchell’s cousin noticed his face and asked corrections Officer Arthur Armstrong, one of the defendants named in the suit, what happened.
Armstrong, the suit says, told the cousin Mitchell spray painted his own face black “because he was planning to enter a portal to hell located inside his house.”
Armstrong told Mitchell’s cousin they would set Mitchell’s bail “high enough that he would not be able to bond out,” and assured him Mitchell would receive medical evaluation and treatment in jail, the lawsuit reads.
“Armstrong told him, ‘We’re going to detox him and then we’ll see how much of his brain is left,’ or words to that effect,” the lawsuit reads.
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‘The freezer’
For the duration of his stay at the jail, Mitchell was kept in cell BK5, the “drunk tank,” according to the suit, either mostly or completely naked on a bare concrete floor.
According to the amended complaint, during the night of Jan. 25 to Jan. 26, “corrections officers intentionally caused extremely cold air to blow through the roof vents” in to his cell using the jail’s climate control system.
The outside temperature that night was in the low 30s, the suit claims, so if “it was simply outside air blowing into the cells, that air was frigid,” the attorney wrote.
“BK5, referred to by some longtime corrections staff and inmates as “the freezer” because of the ability of corrections staff to subject inmates to frigid temperatures there, would have been the coldest cell in the booking area, the suite reads. “Inmates housed there report being able to see their breath because it was so cold and that their digits would turn numb.”
At various points during a check, two corrections officers are captured on video “clowning and laughing as Tony lies motionless and naked on the bare cement floor in the open cell behind them, obviously in severe medical distress and in need of immediate emergency medical treatment.”
Deputies, the complaint continues, “did not call an ambulance for him despite his obvious need for emergency medical treatment.”
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72 degrees Fahrenheit
When Mitchell was taken to a hospital in the backseat of a sheriff’s vehicle, his internal body temperature “was at most 72 degrees Fahrenheit when he arrived, according to the suit.
The emergency room doctor who treated Mitchell, and spent more than three hours trying to resuscitate him, wrote the following note in Mitchell’s medical records:
“I am not sure what circumstances the patient was held in incarceration, but it is difficult to understand a rectal temperature of 72°F… while someone is incarcerated in jail. The cause of his hypothermia is not clear…I do believe that hypothermia was the ultimate cause of his death.”
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.
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Frustrated in Selma
We mentioned yesterday that the mayor in Selma had suspended the police chief. He said he would speak on the topic, and on Wednesday he certainly did.
AL.com’s Carol Robinson reports that Mayor James Perkins let loose on the police department at a press conference. He gave examples of what’s been frustrated him, including a complaint that Selma PD failed to show up to provide extra protection at two Selma schools after two high school students were shot over the weekend. And he spoke about big “Freaknik-style” block parties that have taken place outside the police department, including one at which he said there were more than 100 shots fired yet no police action. And he said the city takes a constant stream of calls complaining about such issues.
Perkins suspended Selma Police Chief Kenta Fulford Tuesday. It’s the second time the mayor has suspended the chief; the City Council reversed his previous suspension.
The UMC’s new same-sex views
Possible changes that led the more conservative congregations to leave the United Methodist Church denomination over the past couple years have already happened.
AL.com’s Greg Garrison reports that the denomination’s bans on the ordaining of openly gay clergy and the officiating of same-sex weddings were lifted Wednesday at the United Methodist General Conference in Charlotte, N.C.
The changes to the “Book of Discipline” do not require clergy to perform same-sex weddings or churches to permit them at their locations, however.
Here’s the ideological impact of the UMC’s split: An issue that previously split the denomination passed 692-51. That’s over 90 percent voting in favor.
More than half Alabama’s UMC-affiliated churches have disaffiliated.
Gaza to Tuscaloosa
Protests calling for a ceasefire in Gaza have made their way to the University of Alabama campus, reports AL.com’s Rebecca Griesbach.
A few dozen protesters gathered, but they weren’t alone. Opposite their waving Palestinian flags were counter-protesters waving American and Israeli flags and even Donald Trump banners. But if you need some feel-good in the middle of all the acrimony, there was a moment where both sides were chanting a really ugly thing about President Biden.
The primary protesters were calling on the severing of ties between the university and defense contractor Lockheed Martin, the maker of weaponry that’s been used by Israel in its ongoing war against the Hamas government in Gaza that was triggered by the October 7 Hamas terror attacks in Israel.
The demonstrators would like the school to rename Hewson Hall, which was named after former Lockheed CEO Marillyn Hewson after her $15 million gift, to prohibit Lockheed from recruiting on campus, and to stop doing research that gets funding from the Defense Department, among other things.
Quoting
“I’ve been watching the Legislature for (more than a) half century, and the most serious of act of financial malpractice and the most serious act of the failure of this state is to not have a lottery. It has probably easily cost us $1.5 billion.”
Jess Brown, retired political science professor at Athens State University.
By the Numbers
That’s where Montgomery ranks nationally with an STD rate of 1,323 cases per 100,000 residents, according to recently released CDC statistics. Philadelphia was the highest city in the U.S. with a rate of 1,504 cases per 100,000.
More Alabama News
Born on This Date
In 1941, former major league relief pitcher Clay Carroll of Clanton. During the 70s in Cincinnati he had some great seasons out of the bullpen for the Big Red Machine.
In 1950, the late Randy Colley of Alexander City. Y’all know him as former WWF Tag Team champion Moondog Rex of the Moondogs.
The podcast
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – The Department of Justice recently recommended re-classifying marijuana, which would remove it from the same category as other drugs such as heroin. This could have significant implications nationwide, but what would be the impact on Alabama?
According to Jefferson County District Attorney, Danny Carr, these federal changes won’t make much of a difference at the state level. If you’re caught with marijuana, the amount you have will determine whether you’re facing a misdemeanor or felony charge.
If you’re caught with a small amount of the drug, it could be considered a misdemeanor, indicating that it might have been for personal use. However, if you’re caught again with the same amount, it becomes a felony. Also, possessing 2 lbs. or more of marijuana is an automatic felony in Alabama.
The US Attorney General has recommended that cannabis be classified as a schedule three drug, indicating a low potential for dependency.
“The state still has the right to regulate marijuana as they see fit under what they call the state police powers, and right now, our state legislature has not made a move when it comes to decriminalization,” he clarifies. “As it relates to reclassification of marijuana, it only concerns federal cases or cases that happen in federal court.”
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Copyright 2024 WBRC. All rights reserved.
Alabama
Alabama lawmakers ban credit card companies from tracking firearm purchases – Yellowhammer News
The Alabama House gave final passage to SB281, banning credit card companies from being able to track Alabama consumers’ firearm purchases. After passing the Senate in April, the new law now goes to Governor Kay Ivey for her consideration and signature.
Firearm purchases were previously allowed to have a specific designated four-digit merchant carrier code (MCC) for firearm purchases and gave gun owners significantly less privacy when it came to their purchasing history.
The bill was carried in the chamber by State Rep. Shane Stringer (R-Mobile) and also bans credit card companies from collecting data on consumers who use debit or credit cards to buy firearms.
“The right to own firearms is enshrined in our nation’s Bill of Rights, and gun owners should be allowed to purchase a weapon without worrying about a private company tracking their actions and collecting data without their permission,” Stringer said. “The freedoms and liberties that too many among us take for granted are under constant threat today, and this legislation seeks to preserve the Second Amendment gun rights of all Alabamians.”
Bill to protect the privacy of gun buyers passes Alabama Senate
Previously, gun purchases were their own category of MCC and were extremely easy for companies to track, but the specific category will become significantly more general under new law.
11 states across the nation (Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming) have all passed similar laws.
The bill now goes to Gov. Kay Ivey and is also in a similar spot on governor’s desks in both Georgia and Tennessee. If passed, the Alabama attorney general may assess fines of $1,000 for each violation of its provisions.
Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP
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