Dallas County sued over death of Black inmate at jail - Confrontation with Officers Led to brain Injury

From [HERE] Another Dallas County jail inmate has died after fighting with jail officers, resulting in a new federal lawsuit filed Tuesday against the county.

At issue is the question of whether restraint by the jail officers caused or contributed to the Nov. 10 death of George Barnes Koomson. Similar circumstances surround two other jail deaths that are still in litigation.

Mary Koomson, his widow, and Samuel Koomson, his father, sued the county, the jail officers involved and Parkland Memorial Hospital. The hospital provides jail medical care and was where Koomson was pronounced dead.

Their suit says Koomson, 44, was arrested by Dallas police on Oct. 31 on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. On Nov. 3, he stopped breathing and was taken to Parkland where he was put on artificial life support, the suit said. He remained in a comatose state until his death a week later.

His wife and father say in the suit that they have been “kept in the dark” about what happened between the time of arrest and death. And they said the county has “thwarted” their attempts to get relevant information.

They claim in the suit that the use of excessive force and the unlawful restraint, as well as the failure to give appropriate medical care, violated Koomson’s civil rights.

Dallas County officials declined to comment.

Parkland officials said it would vigorously defend actions related to the hospital. “Beyond this, Parkland is not going to comment on the specifics of pending litigation, except to say that we have confidence in the justice system and that the court in each case will arrive at the right result,” hospital officials said.

The suit says Koomson, who took medication for asthma, suffered a seizure on Nov. 2 but wasn’t taken to the jail infirmary until the next day.

While waiting to be moved to the infirmary, he damaged a smoke alarm and a “special response team” entered his cell. He was restrained by multiple officers who handcuffed him and used leg restraints.

A sheriff’s report said Koomson was combative with officers because he didn’t want to go to the medical ward.

The suit says jail officers used excessive force to restrain him, causing him to suffer a fatal anoxic brain injury.

It says jail medical staff did not give the hospital information about Koomson’s seizure the previous day or the restraint techniques that were used. The suit also says Koomson’s jail medical records do not show that any treatment was given for his asthma, his seizure “or any medical condition.”

The medical examiner determined that Koomson died of “probable cardiac dysrhythmia,” known as an irregular heartbeat or abnormal heart rhythm, along with stress from an “acute psychotic episode and subsequent restraint,” according to the suit.

The manner of death was listed as undetermined, the lawsuit said.

The circumstances appear similar to that of a separate federal case involving the 2008 death of inmate Corey Bailey, which appears headed for trial.

A federal judge in that case recently ruled that the officers who restrained Bailey before he died should remain defendants so a jury can decide whether or not they were responsible.

The county is also fighting a federal lawsuit from the widow of Gregory Kitchen, 32, who died in January 2010 after a scuffle with jail officers.

Kitchen, a veteran who served in Iraq, was taken to a nurse the night before his death after banging his head on the wall of his cell, reports show. Kitchen lunged at a nurse and groped her before officers pulled him off, reports said.

The next day, officers entered his cell to subdue him. Kitchen, who was fighting back, was sprayed with pepper spray twice and placed in handcuffs and leg irons.

He lost consciousness shortly afterward.