MONTGOMERY, Ala. >> A mentally ill man froze to death at an Alabama jail, according to a lawsuit filed by the man’s family who say he was kept naked in a concrete cell and believe he was also placed in a freezer or other frigid environment.
Anthony Don Mitchell, 33, arrived at a hospital emergency room with a body temperature of 72 degrees, and was pronounced dead hours later, according to the lawsuit. He was brought to the hospital on Jan. 26 from the Walker County Jail, where he’d been incarcerated for two weeks.
An emergency room doctor, who tried unsuccessfully to revive Mitchell, wrote, “I do believe hypothermia was the ultimate cause of his death,” according to the lawsuit filed Monday by Mitchell’s mother in federal court.
Mitchell, who had a history of drug addiction, was arrested Jan. 12 after a cousin asked authorities to do a welfare check on him.
— The Associated Press