Photo: Estate of Joshua McLemore
An Indiana man with untreated schizophrenia died from multiple organ failure after refusing to eat during a 20-day stint of solitary confinement where he was left naked in a padded cell, alawsuitalleges.
Attorneys for the estate of Josh McLemore claim the 29-year-old was suffering an “acute mental health crisis” when he was arrested for “pulling a nurse’s hair” after police escorted him to Schneck Medical Center in Seymour following a welfare check in 2021.
He was taken to at Jackson County Jail and placed in a padded cell on July 20, 2021. He stayed there for 20 days, and was allegedly naked for the entirety other than one instance when he was placed in a straitjacket for several hours.
Thelawsuitfiled in the District Court for the Southern District of Indiana names Jackson County, Sheriff Rick Meyer, Advanced Correctional Healthcare, several jail employees and a doctor involved with the county and jail.
In a statement to PEOPLE, McLemore’s estate attorney Hank Balson said, “Josh McLemore wasn’t a criminal. He was mentally ill and in crisis. He was out of touch with reality and needed help.” Balson added McLemore was left “alone in his cell, naked, barely sleeping or eating, for almost three weeks as he wasted away in front of their eyes. This is not only unconstitutional, it’s immoral.”
Balson alleges McLemore was clearly “not in his right mind and was not able to care for himself.”
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Video surveillance also showed McLemore retrieving 32 meals, but the report noted he rarely ate or would eat very little.
The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages.
PEOPLE has reached out to the Jackson County Sheriff for comment.
source: people.com
