MONTGOMERY, Ala. — An Alabama sheriff’s deputy will plead to blame to assaulting a person affected by a psychological well being disaster who later died of sepsis and hypothermia within the native prison, court docket filings made public on Tuesday published.
The plea helps a contemporary onslaught of stories that depict a rampant tradition of abuse a few of the native sheriff’s division in Walker County, in a rural area of northern Alabama.
Carl Lofton Chippie, 55, agreed to plead to blame to 2 counts of deprivation of rights, in step with the plea. Chippie and fellow Walker County Sheriff’s Deputy James Handley arrested Tony Mitchell in 2023. Mitchell died within the Walker County prison simply two weeks later after he used to be detained in a concrete mobile coated in feces without a bathroom or get right of entry to to clinical consideration.
Chippie stepped on Mitchell’s genitals whilst he used to be handcuffed, announcing, “That is how we deal with seizures in Walker County,” in step with the plea record. Chippie then dragged Mitchell at the flooring, kicked him and threw him more or less into the police automotive.
Chippie assaulted Mitchell even supposing he used to be “compliant, obeyed instructions, and posed no danger of damage to the officials,” the plea says,
The plea deal says Chippie “had grow to be aware of harming arrestees unnecessarily in keeping with the tradition of the Walker County Sheriff’s Place of business.”
The deputies first encountered Mitchell at his place of abode whilst responding to a decision from considered one of his family members who requested for a welfare test on him. The sheriff’s place of work mentioned on the time that Mitchell used to be speaking about portals to hell and asserted that he had fired a weapon at officials.
The plea additionally finds that Walker County Sheriff Nick Smith used to be immediately accountable for sending Mitchell to the native prison the place he would later die, “regardless of (Mitchell) demonstrating signs of critical psychological sickness.”
No less than 10 different prison staff have pleaded to blame to fees associated with Mitchell’s loss of life. Neither Smith nor attorneys for Chippie and Handley answered to split emailed requests for touch upon Tuesday night.
The years lengthy investigation has published harrowing information about the weeks main as much as Mitchell’s loss of life. A plea deal made public in January finds officials deliberately saved the stipulations within the Walker County prison “as filthy as conceivable” to persuade county commissioners to extend salaries and the prison finances.
Mins from a Walker County commissioners assembly ascertain {that a} county commissioner visited the prison two weeks after Mitchell died.
Chippie faces a most of 10 years in jail and a positive of as much as $250,000.
Handley used to be indicted in March on fees of assaulting Mitchell and witness tampering for allegedly mendacity to a separate grand jury in regards to the incident in August.
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Riddle is a corps member for The Related Press/Record for The us Statehouse Information Initiative. Record for The us is a nonprofit nationwide provider program that puts reporters in native newsrooms to document on undercovered problems.
