The family of Christon Collins, a 27-year-old U.S. Army veteran who died following an apparent fentanyl overdose while incarcerated in the DeKalb County Jail last year, has launched a federal civil rights lawsuit against the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office, among others, as reported by FOX 5 Atlanta. The suit, confirmed on what would have been Collins’s 29th birthday, coincided with a guilty plea from Tobias Woods, the inmate implicated in supplying the drugs, who has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The legal action spearheaded by attorney Ben Crump, asserts that on March 13, 2024, Collins was left untreated on the jail floor for over three hours after collapsing despite video evidence of his dire state, personnel were on their phones, and the failure to act amounted to deliberate indifference to human life; attorney Crump highlighted, “We believe him laying on that jail floor in the DeKalb County detention facility for over three hours was not only a shame before God but also deliberate indifference for a human life, which is a Constitution violation in the United States of America,” according to FOX 5 Atlanta, Collins mother, Jonia Melburn, has expressed dissatisfaction with Tobias Woods’s sentencing, stating that her son was under the jail’s care, not the inmate’s, and she has vowed to keep fighting for her son.
Collins’s family contend that despite inmates’ pleas for help the staff neglected to administer CPR, Narcan, or any lifesaving aid, leading to Collins suffering cardiac arrest and consequent anoxic brain injury, culminating in his death two days thereafter as detailed by 11Alive. The lawsuit names Sheriff Melody Maddox, multiple detention officers, and an EMT as defendants and comes amid prolonged scrutiny regarding how contraband substances are managed within the supposedly secured jail facility…