A mentally ill man who froze to death while in police custody “likely” lost his life after being left in an Alabama jail’s freezer for hours, a lawsuit alleges. Anthony Mitchell, 33, died in January after enduring multiple rights abuses at the Walker County Jail, the lawsuit claims. The case filed against several jail officials, including Sheriff Nick Smith, claims that Mitchell was “likely … placed in a restraint chair in the jail kitchen’s walk-in freezer or similar frigid environment and left there for hours.” The lawsuit further describes the treatment of Mitchell as “one of the most appalling cases of jail abuse the country has seen.” “How does a man literally freeze to death while incarcerated in a modern, climate-controlled jail, in the custody and care of corrections officers?” the suit asks. A former deputy has also filed a separate but related case against the sheriff’s office after she was fired after sharing videos purporting to show Mitchell being abused in the jail. Her videos allegedly show Mitchell being dragged naked across the floor and being tased by officers inside his isolation cell.
