A Tennessee man with no teeth choked to death on a piece of chicken that jail staff gave him instead of the “soft diet” he was required to have, a lawsuit says. The jailers allegedly watched him die and ignored “frantic pleas” from other inmates to save him.
“Defendants could visibly see the decedent choking and/or heard the calls of other inmates and knew there was a medical emergency,” a legal complaint filed by Joseph Denton’s grandmother says.
Denton, 37, died in May 2025 at the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center in Murfreesboro from “complications of choking,” according to his death certificate and his grandmother’s complaint, which names Rutherford County and jail staff as defendants…