Former inmate sues Hinds County, alleges beating left him with traumatic brain injury
Jackson — A 31-year-old former inmate alleges he was beaten at the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond and suffered a traumatic brain injury, according to hospital records and a lawsuit filed this summer in U.S. District Court in Jackson.
Hospital medical records provided to Mississippi Today show Deonte Shaw was found barely conscious the morning after inmates attacked him on the night of Nov. 12, and was later diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and placed on a ventilator, the records say. The lawsuit, filed by Shaw’s attorneys, alleges Hinds County failed to run a jail free from widespread violence and seeks damages including medical expenses.
In court filings, county-hired attorney Jessica Malone denied Shaw was beaten and said he “suffered a medical emergency, was found unresponsive, administered Narcan and then provided with medical treatment,” the filings say. Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones declined to comment on the litigation, and Wendell France, the federal court-appointed receiver overseeing the detention center, is barred by the court from speaking to the media, according to court records cited by Mississippi Today. Medical records reviewed by Mississippi Today list the “mechanism of injury” as assault and note benzodiazepine in Shaw’s system that paramedics administered before his admission to the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
Shaw’s partner, Ife Myles, told Mississippi Today she learned in late December from a cellmate that Shaw had been beaten. Recordings of calls she made to jail staff obtained by Mississippi Today include a man identifying himself as a supervisor saying, “Shaw is good,” and refusing to provide Shaw’s location, citing HIPAA. Myles said a jailer later told her on the day of Shaw’s release, “Bring a wheelchair.” She said she found Shaw slumped in a wheelchair, drooling with his left arm curled on his chest. She has documented his rehabilitation with photos and videos showing progress and lingering impairments, and Shaw continues to have seizures and speech and mobility problems, his attorneys and Myles said.
The complaint was filed five days after inmates in Raymond fatally beat an 18-year-old, an incident that was captured on video and widely shared, Mississippi Today reported. The U.S. Justice Department in 2015 found conditions at the Hinds County jail unconstitutional, including failures to protect inmates from violence. Attorney Jad Khalaf, who represents Shaw, cited long-standing federal monitor reports and said, “All the while, more people are dying or being severely beaten.”
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