County sued over former inmate's death

MOUNT CLEMENS (AP) — The son of a Detroit man who died after being held at the Macomb County Jail is alleging in a lawsuit that the county and several jail employees ignored his father’s health issues.

Malik Jeter recently filed a federal lawsuit over the death of his father, Andrew Jeter, in October 2017. Andrew Jeter entered the jail in November 2016 after being found “unresponsive in his vehicle,” lethargic and mumbling, according to the lawsuit.

The complaint doesn’t explain why Jeter, 41, was held for five weeks in jail.

Jeter and his family’s requests for medical treatment were repeatedly ignored and denied, according to the lawsuit against the county, four sheriff's deputies, a nurse and corrections officers.

The lawsuit claims that the defendants were made aware of Jeter's serious medical conditions but failed to treat his symptoms of pneumonia, severe infection, respiratory lesions and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Jail employees eventually took Jeter to the hospital after finding him unresponsive in his cell.

He was comatose upon arrival. Jeter was placed on a ventilator at the hospital until he died, the complaint said. The lawsuit seeks more than $75,000 in damages.

“There's more to this case than is reflected in the plaintiff’s complaint,” said County Corporation Counsel John Schapka. “Mr. Jeter passed away 10 months after leaving the Macomb County Jail from a host of medical conditions, none of which were caused by the jail.”

The lawsuit is among several filed against Macomb County in recent years over inmate deaths, including 37-year-old Jennifer Meyers who died at the jail from sepsis in 2013. The jail was also sued last month by a woman who alleges she was forced to give birth in a cell after jail staff ignored her when she went into labor.