The family of a former Macomb County jail inmate is suing the county, claiming that jail staff’s negligence and “deliberate indifference” caused the man’s death.
The lawsuit, filed last week in Detroit federal court, claims 40-year-old Andrew Antoine Jeter was visibly ill when he entered the Macomb County jail in November 2016. It goes on to say that Jeter and family members repeatedly pleaded for medical attention for serious conditions including “symptoms of pneumonia, severe infection, including sepsis, chronic respiratory lesions and COPD.”
“Although the Decedent was in obvious need of medical treatment for serious medical conditions,” the legal complaint says, two sheriff’s deputies, a nurse and various corrections officers “just left Decedent in his cell and continued to totally ignore the Decedent’s need for medical treatment despite pleas for help.”
The lawsuit says that continued until December 13, when Jeter collapsed in his cell. He was comatose by the time he arrived at the hospital, where he remained until he eventually died in October 2017.
The civil rights case is one of more than a half-dozen lawsuits the Macomb County jail has faced over inmate deaths in the past five years. Several of those lawsuits, including those filed by the families of Jennifer Meyers and David Stojcevski, are based on claims of medical negligence.
Jeter’s family’s attorney could not be reached for comment Monday. Macomb County corporation counsel John Schapka was not familiar with the court filing and could not immediately comment on it.
