Jeremy Lee Thompson, 34, sat in his Honda Accord outside a Dollar General in south Alabama on a Sunday evening last May, clutching his chest and mouthing that he needed help. When police arrived, Thompson told them he was having a stroke, according to a federal lawsuit filed last month.
Instead of taking him to the hospital, police booked him in the Geneva County jail, dropped him in a restraint for an hour and a half and gave him Ketamine, costing him his life, the suit alleges.
“The officers brought Thompson into the jail by supporting him as Thompson’s feet dragged on the ground,” states the complaint filed in federal court in Alabama’s Middle District last month.
The suit names two City of Geneva officers, Brandon Rogers and Ethan Hendrix. Attorneys for the defendants have not yet filed an answer to the complaint. An attorney for the two officers did not respond to a request for comment.
After Thompson was finally taken to a hospital, according to the complaint, he was pronounced dead from a heart attack. An autopsy report, according to the suit, later stated the cause of death as “Toxic effects of Methamphetamine.”
“I look forward to the opportunity to review the body camera footage. What I suspect it will show is evidence supporting the fact that the officers should have called for medical help, instead of taking Mr. Thompson to jail,” said Jon Goldfarb, attorney for Thompson’s estate, which is administered by his grandmother, Verlon Elizabeth Thompson.
According to the suit, Officers Rogers and Hendrix, who work for the City of Geneva, spotted Thompson outside the store after a customer called 911.
“(He) was in obvious medical distress, clutching his chest, mouthing the words ‘Help Me’ and making other statements that the customer found concerning,” the complaint states.
Instead of sending emergency responders, the 911 dispatcher sent the officers to talk to Thompson. They arrived at about 7:09 p.m. and later said they found Thompson with an open container of alcohol in his car, according to the complaint. The suit says he was arrested for public intoxication. According to the suit, tests later showed that Thompson had no alcohol in his system.
Upon finding Thompson, officers did not conduct a field sobriety test, according to the lawsuit, and took him to the county jail to leave him in the “drunk tank” at about 7:30 p.m.
“Deference was not shown to the decedent,” the county coroner, Danny Adkinson stated in his autopsy report, according to the complaint. “Why was an individual who was reported as clutching his chest and mouthing the words ‘help me’ not medically cleared?” the report continued.
The lawsuit alleges that the officers violated policy by not taking Thompson to the emergency room before taking him to the jail.
According to the lawsuit, the coroner’s report stated that once in jail, Thompson was placed in a restraint chair. After an hour and a half, he showed signs of serious distress.
“He had begun to shake and sweat profusely, as his emergency medical state became more dire,” the complaint states.
The Geneva Rescue Squad arrived around 9:13 p.m. and gave Thompson a dose of a tranquilizer, ketamine, to calm him down, according to the complaint. He was then taken to the emergency room and admitted at 9:50 p.m. for a possible overdose that had lasted an estimated three hours, according to reports by the emergency responders referenced in the complaint.
At the hospital, Thompson was diagnosed with a heart attack. By 11:05 p.m. his heart rate had slowed, and he stopped breathing. Medical workers attempted to resuscitate him, but it was not possible, and he was pronounced dead at 11:20 p.m., according to the complaint.
The complaint alleges that Thompson’s life could have been spared if he had been taken to the hospital sooner. The suit alleges the officers violated the Fourteenth Amendment by their indifference to his serious medical need. Thompson’s estate is seeking legal fees and compensation.