The household of an Alabama inmate who died in jail was shocked when his physique was delivered to them so “severely decomposed” that they “had no choice but to hold a closed casket funeral,” per a federal lawsuit filed final Thursday.
After filling out the mandatory paperwork, then spending 5 days trying to say Brandon Dotson’s physique after his Nov. 21 demise, per a lawsuit filed by daughter Audrey Marie Dotson and mom Audrey South, they noticed “bruising on the back of [his] neck and excessive swelling across his head” when the corpse lastly arrived.
On the lookout for solutions, family members of 43-year-old Dotson retained a pathologist to conduct his personal post-mortem, they usually had been shocked to search out “the heart was missing from the chest cavity of Mr. Dotson’s body,” in line with the lawsuit.
Kinfolk nonetheless do not know “where Mr. Dotson’s heart currently is, or in whose possession” or exactly how or when the person died, they declare.
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Brandon Dotson, 43, was discovered useless in his cell on Nov. 21. His members of the family had been unable to carry an open casket funeral because of “severe decomposition.” The person’s coronary heart was allegedly lacking from his chest cavity. (U.S. District Courtroom for the Northern District of Alabama)
“[The Alabama Department of Corrections] performed an autopsy on [Dotson] and removed the heart, thereby concealing the true cause of death,” reads the go well with, filed by lawyer Lauren Faraino. “By taking this action, Defendants intentionally or recklessly destroyed or altered key evidence that deprived Plaintiff of the ability to determine how the deceased died through an independent autopsy.”
Dotson’s mom and daughter at the moment are “seek[ing] the immediate return of Mr. Dotson’s heart” so it “may be examined by an autopsy pathologist and then properly cremated or interred.”
Dotson had served 19 years of his 99-year sentence in jail for a burglary conviction and a parole violation at Barbour County’s Ventress Correctional Facility.
Though he was not sentenced to life, the alleged misconduct of jail employees was “tantamount to a death sentence,” per the doc.
Brandon Dotson had served 19 years of a 99-year sentence for housebreaking and a parole violation at Ventress Correctional Facility, pictured. (Alabama Division of Corrections)
Dotson’s household introduced claims of eighth and 14th Modification violations, indifference to the person’s medical wants and security, conspiring to cowl up deliberate indifference, interference with the household’s proper of burial, intentional and negligent mishandling of a corpse, intentional infliction of emotional misery, failure to inform subsequent of kin and wrongful demise.
Within the days earlier than his demise, Dotson allegedly instructed jail employees that one other inmate was threatening him with violence. In response, jail employees allegedly moved Dotson from “segregated housing” into normal inhabitants, the place he may access drugs and be attacked simply by these looking for to hurt and exploit him within the “grossly understaffed and severely overcrowded” Ventress Correctional Facility, in line with the lawsuit.
Correctional employees had “every opportunity to intervene and prevent the death of Mr. Dotson,” the go well with claimed, however “no member… was available to prevent the abuse Mr. Dotson endured and the constant and unlimited access to drugs that he had.”
When he was discovered useless, the household alleges, Dotson’s “body had already begun to stiffen.”
Brandon Dotson died in an Alabama jail. (Getty)
The go well with names Alabama Division of Corrections brass, the warden of the Ventress Correctional Facility, the director of the Alabama Division of Forensic Sciences and unnamed jail workers as defendants.
The College of Alabama at Birmingham Heersink Faculty of Drugs can be named as a defendant, as a result of the college is a “possible intended recipient of Mr. Dotson’s heart.”
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The lawsuit cites an alleged current historical past of the Alabama DOC offering “human organs and tissues” to medical college students for “laboratory exercises.”
Along with the return of Dotson’s coronary heart and a jury trial, his household is asking the U.S. District Courtroom for the Northern District of Alabama to challenge an injunction towards Alabama Division of Forensic Sciences Director Angelo Della Manna and Alabama DOC Commissioner John Q. Hamm.
Hamm may have “halt[ed] the constitutional violations” that befell within the jail, the lawsuit claimed, ensured that the household obtained Dotson’s physique in a well timed method and instructed wardens to inform the household of the person’s lacking coronary heart. AFDS Della Manna may have “instruct[ed]… medical examiners not to remove organs or tissues from a body undergoing an autopsy without permission from his next of kin,” per the go well with.
“In the midst of grieving Brandon Dotson’s untimely death, his family is having to fight to get the most basic answers about how he died, and why the Alabama Department of Corrections returned his body without his heart,” Faraino instructed Legislation & Crime.
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“At this time we do not know where his heart is. It is the state’s responsibility to keep those who are in its prisons safe from harm,” the household’s lawyer continued. “The ADOC failed to do that for Brandon, as they have for dozens of other individuals this year.”
Faraino additionally instructed the outlet that Dotson was not granted parole, and that it’s unclear whether or not he was notified earlier than his demise.
Fox Information Digital couldn’t attain the Alabama DOC or Faraino for remark at press time.
