Alabama man froze to death in jail after officers put him in freezer as possible ‘punishment,’ lawsuit alleges. ‘This is one of the most appalling cases of jail abuse the country has seen.’
An Alabama inmate who froze to death in jail was likely forced into a freezer as punishment, according to a new federal lawsuit.
Walker County Jail officials allegedly placed Anthony “Tony” Mitchell, 33, “in a restraint chair in the jail kitchen’s walk-in freezer or similar frigid enforcement and left [him] there for hours,” possibly “as punishment for deputies who had ‘had a time with Tony,’” according to the complaint.
He died on Jan. 26.
“This is one of the most appalling cases of jail abuse the country has seen.”
— Federal lawsuit against Walker County Sheriff’s Office
“While Tony languished naked and dying of hypothermia in the early morning hours of January 26 and his chances for survival trickled away, numerous corrections officers and medical staff wandered over to his open cell door to spectate and be entertained by his condition,” the complaint states.
Photos included in the complaint show officers handling Mitchell, who appears limp, in various areas throughout the jail.
Mitchell’s body temperature was apparently 72 degrees when jail officials put him in a sheriff’s vehicle on the morning of Jan. 26 and drove him to the hospital rather than calling an ambulance, according to the lawsuit.