An Alabama man probably froze to death after being restrained in a jail’s walk-in freezer or similarly frigid environment, says a lawsuit filed by the man’s family, which cites footage shared by a corrections officer who spoke out against the incident.
Anthony Mitchell, 33, was arrested after allegedly firing a gun during a wellness check. He was then jailed for 14 days until he was taken unconscious to the Walker Baptist Medical Center in the back seat of a police car on Jan. 26, according to the lawsuit and footage.
Upon arrival, Mitchell’s body temperature was 72 degrees Fahrenheit. An emergency room physician tried to resuscitate him for three hours and then pronounced him dead.
“I am not sure what circumstances the patient was held in incarceration but it is difficult to understand a rectal temperature of 72 degree Fahrenheit while someone is incarcerated in jail,” wrote the emergency room physician in his medical records, according to the lawsuit. “I do not know if he could have been exposed to a cold environment. I do believe that hypothermia was the ultimate cause of his death.”
It’s “likely” that Mitchell was placed in a restraint chair in the jail kitchen’s walk-in freezer or another frigid environment and left there for hours, according to the lawsuit filed Monday.
“From the information we have received, we believe it was the jail freezer or cooler, but we do not at this time have video to confirm that,” William Smith, an attorney for Wiggins Childs, the Birmingham law firm that filed the suit, told The Washington Post. “We believe the sheriff’s office has video showing exactly what happened to him.”
The video footage shared by the corrections officer shows Mitchell being carried unconscious to a police vehicle. According to the suit, that contradicts an earlier sheriff’s office statement that he was “alert and conscious when he left the facility and arrived at the hospital.”
“This is what makes this case different from others,” Jon Goldfarb, another attorney working for the Mitchell family, said. “There is footage from Tony’s last night in custody.”
The footage was initially recorded and shared by Karen Kelly, a corrections officer from the county jail who has since been fired. Kelly alleged in a separate lawsuit filed Tuesday that she was fired over the incident.
She is suing the Walker County Sheriff’s Office and several officers, saying they violated her First Amendment rights by firing her after she spoke out against what she saw as abusive actions by her fellow officers. Her lawsuit asks for her job back along with compensatory and punitive damages.
The Walker County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment to The Post.
Kelly was not on duty the night Mitchell died. But when she returned to work, she heard rumors about his deteriorated physical state when he left the jail, according to her lawsuit. Kelly searched through security footage to find out the “truth” and recorded video of him being taken to the police car on her cellphone, the filing stated.
Officials at Walker County Sheriff’s Office called Kelly in for questioning about the video after it leaked to social media on Feb. 8. Kelly acknowledged that she had disseminated the video to her direct supervisor and to a corrections officer at another law enforcement agency, but to no one else, and only to “share the truth of what really happened to Mitchell,” her lawsuit reads.
Two days later, she was fired.
“There should be laws to protect people like Karen Kelly,” Goldfarb, who is also representing Kelly, told The Post. “There should be laws to encourage people to come forward when they see abuse in police custody.”
The Mitchell family lawsuit argues that as Mitchell was lying naked in his cell on Jan. 25, instead of calling for help, “numerous corrections officers and medical staff wandered to his open cell door to spectate and be entertained by his condition.”
Mitchell was held in a cell known as the ‘drunk tank’ without a bed or toilet, according to Kelly’s lawsuit. “It was simply a concrete floor, and Mitchell had no clothing other than some paper-thin material,” the document stated.
“When the Mitchell family first came to me, they told me that after they asked for a wellness check for their son and brother, he was arrested and went to jail, and now is dead,” said Goldfarb. “They told me they heard rumors he was abused in jail, but at that time they hadn’t seen the videos we have now seen.”
In the security camera footage from the jail, two sheriff’s office employees carry Mitchell, without a stretcher, toward a police car in the loading area of the jail.
The sheriff’s office claimed that Mitchell was “alert and conscious” when he left the jail and that he suffered a medical emergency after arriving at the hospital, according to a statement to CBS 42 on Jan. 30.
But the video shows that Mitchell was unconscious as he was carried out of the jail, and his limp body was placed on the floor for several seconds before he was moved inside the car. The last family member to see Mitchell was his cousin, Steve Mitchell, according to the family’s lawsuit.
Anthony Mitchell arrived at his cousin’s house on Jan. 12, and according to the lawsuit, Steve Mitchell realized that his cousin was “spouting delusions” and was “in serious need of psychiatric help.” Anthony Mitchell had a history of drug addiction and had been living alone since the death of his father in 2022, according to the family.
Steve Mitchell tried to contact the Walker County Sheriff’s Office for a wellness check. But when he couldn’t reach anyone there, he called 911.
Steve and Anthony Mitchell’s mother, Margaret, who is a party in the lawsuit, could not be reached for comment.
When deputies reached Mitchell’s home, he “fired at least one shot” at them “before retreating into a wooded area,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement on Jan. 13.
In response to that shot, Walker County’s SWAT unit, Sheriff Nick Smith and other units arrived at Mitchell’s home. Together, they took him into custody.
The statement said Mitchell was “disoriented” when he was booked into the Walker County Jail on the charge of attempted murder. “Thankfully, the day ended with everyone safe,” the statement added.
Goldfarb said the next step in the lawsuit probably will be for the sheriff’s office to respond to the complaint before litigation begins.
Cases like this usually take up to a year, Goldfarb said. But this case is different, he said, “because for once you had people recording the abuse that went on in a jail and sharing that evidence.”
Anthony Mitchell, 33, was arrested after allegedly firing a gun during a wellness check. He was then jailed for 14 days until he was taken unconscious to the Walker Baptist Medical Center in the back seat of a police car on Jan. 26, according to the lawsuit and footage.
Upon arrival, Mitchell’s body temperature was 72 degrees Fahrenheit. An emergency room physician tried to resuscitate him for three hours and then pronounced him dead.
“I am not sure what circumstances the patient was held in incarceration but it is difficult to understand a rectal temperature of 72 degree Fahrenheit while someone is incarcerated in jail,” wrote the emergency room physician in his medical records, according to the lawsuit. “I do not know if he could have been exposed to a cold environment. I do believe that hypothermia was the ultimate cause of his death.”
It’s “likely” that Mitchell was placed in a restraint chair in the jail kitchen’s walk-in freezer or another frigid environment and left there for hours, according to the lawsuit filed Monday.
“From the information we have received, we believe it was the jail freezer or cooler, but we do not at this time have video to confirm that,” William Smith, an attorney for Wiggins Childs, the Birmingham law firm that filed the suit, told The Washington Post. “We believe the sheriff’s office has video showing exactly what happened to him.”
The video footage shared by the corrections officer shows Mitchell being carried unconscious to a police vehicle. According to the suit, that contradicts an earlier sheriff’s office statement that he was “alert and conscious when he left the facility and arrived at the hospital.”
“This is what makes this case different from others,” Jon Goldfarb, another attorney working for the Mitchell family, said. “There is footage from Tony’s last night in custody.”
The footage was initially recorded and shared by Karen Kelly, a corrections officer from the county jail who has since been fired. Kelly alleged in a separate lawsuit filed Tuesday that she was fired over the incident.
She is suing the Walker County Sheriff’s Office and several officers, saying they violated her First Amendment rights by firing her after she spoke out against what she saw as abusive actions by her fellow officers. Her lawsuit asks for her job back along with compensatory and punitive damages.
The Walker County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment to The Post.
Kelly was not on duty the night Mitchell died. But when she returned to work, she heard rumors about his deteriorated physical state when he left the jail, according to her lawsuit. Kelly searched through security footage to find out the “truth” and recorded video of him being taken to the police car on her cellphone, the filing stated.
Officials at Walker County Sheriff’s Office called Kelly in for questioning about the video after it leaked to social media on Feb. 8. Kelly acknowledged that she had disseminated the video to her direct supervisor and to a corrections officer at another law enforcement agency, but to no one else, and only to “share the truth of what really happened to Mitchell,” her lawsuit reads.
Two days later, she was fired.
“There should be laws to protect people like Karen Kelly,” Goldfarb, who is also representing Kelly, told The Post. “There should be laws to encourage people to come forward when they see abuse in police custody.”
The Mitchell family lawsuit argues that as Mitchell was lying naked in his cell on Jan. 25, instead of calling for help, “numerous corrections officers and medical staff wandered to his open cell door to spectate and be entertained by his condition.”
Mitchell was held in a cell known as the ‘drunk tank’ without a bed or toilet, according to Kelly’s lawsuit. “It was simply a concrete floor, and Mitchell had no clothing other than some paper-thin material,” the document stated.
“When the Mitchell family first came to me, they told me that after they asked for a wellness check for their son and brother, he was arrested and went to jail, and now is dead,” said Goldfarb. “They told me they heard rumors he was abused in jail, but at that time they hadn’t seen the videos we have now seen.”
In the security camera footage from the jail, two sheriff’s office employees carry Mitchell, without a stretcher, toward a police car in the loading area of the jail.
The sheriff’s office claimed that Mitchell was “alert and conscious” when he left the jail and that he suffered a medical emergency after arriving at the hospital, according to a statement to CBS 42 on Jan. 30.
But the video shows that Mitchell was unconscious as he was carried out of the jail, and his limp body was placed on the floor for several seconds before he was moved inside the car. The last family member to see Mitchell was his cousin, Steve Mitchell, according to the family’s lawsuit.
Anthony Mitchell arrived at his cousin’s house on Jan. 12, and according to the lawsuit, Steve Mitchell realized that his cousin was “spouting delusions” and was “in serious need of psychiatric help.” Anthony Mitchell had a history of drug addiction and had been living alone since the death of his father in 2022, according to the family.
Steve Mitchell tried to contact the Walker County Sheriff’s Office for a wellness check. But when he couldn’t reach anyone there, he called 911.
Steve and Anthony Mitchell’s mother, Margaret, who is a party in the lawsuit, could not be reached for comment.
When deputies reached Mitchell’s home, he “fired at least one shot” at them “before retreating into a wooded area,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement on Jan. 13.
In response to that shot, Walker County’s SWAT unit, Sheriff Nick Smith and other units arrived at Mitchell’s home. Together, they took him into custody.
The statement said Mitchell was “disoriented” when he was booked into the Walker County Jail on the charge of attempted murder. “Thankfully, the day ended with everyone safe,” the statement added.
Goldfarb said the next step in the lawsuit probably will be for the sheriff’s office to respond to the complaint before litigation begins.
Cases like this usually take up to a year, Goldfarb said. But this case is different, he said, “because for once you had people recording the abuse that went on in a jail and sharing that evidence.”
