- An Alabama man is dead after jail officials restrained him in a walk-in freezer, a lawsuit alleged.
- The man's internal body temperature was 72 degrees Fahrenheit by the time he arrived at a hospital.
A 33-year-old man froze to death in custody at an Alabama jail after being held in a walk-in freezer for hours, according to a new lawsuit filed against multiple jail officials by the man's mother.
Anthony Mitchell was pronounced dead on January 26 after being incarcerated for 14 days "under hellish conditions" in the Walker County Jail, according to the lawsuit brought by Margaret Mitchell on Monday. By the time Mitchell was transported to a local hospital, his internal body temperature was 72 degrees Fahrenheit and staff spent over three hours unsuccessfully trying to resuscitate him.
"The only way for Tony's body temperature to have 'started dropping' to 72 degrees in such a short period of time was for him to have been placed in a restraint chair in the jail kitchen's walk-in freezer or similar frigid environment and left there for hours," the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also quotes notes from Mitchell's doctor stating he believed the cause of death was hypothermia, and noting "it is difficult to understand a temperature of 72° F 22° centigrade while someone is incarcerated in jail." The average human body temperature is roughly 98 degrees Fahrenheit.
The lawyers representing Mitchell's mother obtained security camera footage from inside the jail showing the hours after Mitchell was allegedly removed from the freezer and returned to his isolation cell. The lawsuit said the videos showed Mitchell lying "motionless and naked on the bare cement floor" in medical distress, while officers "can be seen clowning and laughing."
The attorneys said they obtained the videos from a corrections officer "who dared to preserve security camera footage on her phone" and who wanted Mitchell's family and the public to know what happened to him. That corrections officer, Karen Kelly, has filed her own lawsuit alleging she was fired in retaliation for her actions.
Personnel from the Walker County Jail did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Mitchell was arrested on January 12, while in a "psychotic and delusional state" partially caused by drug use, according to the lawsuit. One of Mitchell's cousins was concerned about his welfare and called 911 to explain that Mitchell was having a mental breakdown and likely needed an ambulance.
But the Walker County Sheriff's Office said that when deputies arrived at the scene, Mitchell brandished a handgun and opened fire on them. They arrested Mitchell and held him at the Walker County Jail on an attempted murder charge.
Between January 12 and January 26, Mitchell was kept in an isolation cell in the jail's booking area, which lacked a bed or anything else to sleep on and only had a drain in the floor for a toilet, according to his mother's lawsuit. Jail staff also took Mitchell's false teeth on January 15, leaving him without the ability to chew solid food for more than 10 days, according to the documents.
Mitchell appeared to have been kept completely naked the entire time he was incarcerated and was not given a jail uniform until he was transported to the hospital on January 26, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit said Mitchell's cousin received a phone call from jail staff describing him as "the worst case of addiction we've ever seen" and explaining that Mitchell's body temperature had started dropping that morning and prompted the jail to transport him to the hospital.
"Based on these circumstances, it appears that Tony was strapped into a restraint chair during the night of January 25 to January 26 and placed in the jail kitchen's walk-in freezer or similar frigid environment for an extended time, possibly as punishment," the lawsuit said.