Indiana
Woman files suit over son’s death at jail
GREENSBURG, Ind. (AP) — The mother of a man who died at a southeastern Indiana jail is suing the county’s sheriff and jail staff, accusing them of “callousness or reckless indifference” in his death.
Lynn Brewsbaugh’s wrongful death lawsuit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis over the March 17 death of her 38-year-old son, M. Shane Satterfield. The Greensburg woman’s suit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
A coroner found that Satterfield, who had been serving a 14-day sentence for drunken driving, died at the Decatur County Jail in Greensburg about 50 miles southeast of Indianapolis of natural causes from complications of alcohol withdrawal, the Greensburg Daily News reported.
But Brewsbaugh’s suit alleges jail staff didn’t properly react to Satterfield’s deteriorating condition, which included hallucinations, talking to imaginary people and believing his jail cell held a bomb. The suit also alleges that jail staff placed Satterfield on a 30-minute medical watch but allowed hours to pass between checks.
Decatur County Sheriff Greg Allen and Jail Commander Darin Miley said they do not comment on pending litigation. Brewsbaugh’s suit also names the county sheriff’s department and 12 deputies and jail employees as defendants.
Brewsbaugh’s attorney, Stephen Wager, said numerous jail officers noted Satterfield’s symptoms and his deteriorating condition, which he said they were trained to recognize as potentially life-threatening.
“Despite that, they let him die,” Wager said.
The suit alleges that Satterfield died in part because of Allen’s policy that no inmate could be taken to the hospital without his approval. Wager said that the evening Satterfield died jail personnel called Allen and told him about the man’s deteriorating health about 5 p.m., but the sheriff did not enter Satterfield’s cell until 90 minutes later and “by that time it was too late.”
Brewsbaugh called the treatment her son received disgraceful.
“He died without any dignity at all,” she said Friday.
Missouri
Family sues over St. Louis police shooting of man
ST. LOUIS (AP) — The family of a man who was wielding a knife when he was killed by St. Louis police in August has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.
Attorney Jermaine Wooten said Friday that the lawsuit filed in St. Louis Circuit Court seeks in excess of $25,000 in damages for the death of Kajieme Powell, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Powell’s mother, Karen Powell, alleges in the complaint that officers used unreasonable force in violation of the rights of her son. The 25-year-old man was fatally shot as officers responded to a report that two soft drinks and a doughnut had been stolen from a convenience store. The shooting took place several miles from a continuing string of nightly protests and rioting in Ferguson triggered by the fatal police shooting there of Michael Brown, 18.
The lawsuit over Kajieme Powell’s death alleges that he was “pacing on the sidewalk and posed no threat to anyone” when officers pointed their guns and “started yelling forceful commands.”
St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson initially told reporters that Powell was holding a knife high and came within two or three feet of the officers, but revised the account when cellphone video showed no knife held up and Powell shot at apparently greater range. On the video, Powell was seen approaching an officer and shouting, “Shoot me! Kill me now!”
Dotson has said he had been trying to relay the best information available early in the investigation. He has said that by policy, police are allowed to shoot someone threatening them with a knife at up to 21 feet.
A police investigation report on Powell’s death is expected to be finished this month. Police spokeswoman Schron Jackson said in an email Saturday to The Associated Press that the department didn’t comment on pending litigation.
Wooten said in a prepared statement that Powell was black and the officers were white, but he noted: “This case is not about race; it’s about how we police in this city. And that must change.”
Nebraska
Judge: Funeral protest challenge OK to go to trial
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A federal judge has cleared the way for a trial over a challenge to the Nebraska law that limits protests and picketing at funerals.
The case stems from a lawsuit filed in 2009 by members of Topeka, Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church that challenged Nebraska’s funeral picketing law. The original 2006 law required protesters to stand 300 feet away from a funeral service, but it has since been amended to keep protesters at least 500 feet away.
The church protests at funerals around the country — using chants and signs that include anti-gay slurs — contending that U.S. soldiers and others are being struck down by God for defending a nation that tolerates homosexuality.
On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Laurie Smith Camp denied a motion for summary judgment by the church, The Omaha World-Herald reported.
Smith Camp said several issues need to be resolved at trial. Those include whether the 500-foot restriction is narrowly tailored to serve an important governmental interest without violating free speech rights and whether picketing at funerals is the only way the church can get its message across.
Margie Phelps-Roper, a Westboro member and an attorney for the church, told The Associated Press in an email Saturday that she is confident the church will prevail at trial, set for March.
“It will be another testimony against Nebraska,” she said, referring to court decisions that have favored Westboro in the funeral protest law challenge, as well as the church’s successful challenge in 2010 of Nebraska’s ban on flag mutilation.
Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, told the World-Herald he was pleased with the judge’s decision.
“I’ll continue to fight to ensure peace and privacy for those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in protecting our country,” Bruning said in a written statement.
