A Wisconsin mother has filed a federal civil lawsuit against a local sheriff’s department after her son died in police custody for a mental health crisis.
A Racine Police Department arrest report shows Malcolm James, 27, called 911 last May for help because he was suicidal. When the police went to his home, they arrested James on arson charges after they reportedly found him setting his clothes afire.
Four days later, he died in the county jail. Malcolm’s mother, Sherry James, is suing the Racine County Sheriff’s Department, which runs the jail, the deputies and a nurse involved, and a company from where the nurse was outsourced for $20 million.
Racine County authorities said James was on suicide watch and continuously smashed “his head into a concrete wall” and died during a “medical event” in the jail.
Later, video footage showed James died while corrections officers pressed down on his neck while he was in an emergency restraint chair. His autopsy shows he died of asphyxia.
No charges have been filed against the officers involved in his death. However, a nurse who was involved in the incident has been fired.
“I carried Malcolm for nine months. He lived for 27 years, in a 15-second video, his life was taken,” Sherry James said during a March 18 press conference.
According to a police report obtained by the Atlanta Black Star, James told police dispatchers on May 28, 2021, “he just didn’t know what to do.” The 911 dispatcher sent officers to his apartment, where they found James setting his clothes on fire. A district attorney’s office report shows he was then transported to the hospital.
While at the hospital, James told police he set his clothes on fire because he recalled his uncle speaking to his mother once about setting himself on fire. The officers charged James with arson and 14 counts of endangerment for putting the other residents in the apartment lives at risk.
“Mr. James did not make suicidal statements or any statements about wanting to harm anyone else,” District Attorney Patricia Hanson said in the report posted online.
“RPD [Racine Police Department] Officers spoke with hospital staff while on the scene who advised that Mr. James did not indicate any intention of being suicidal at the hospital.”
James was then transported to the county jail, where he was placed on suicide watch.
He reportedly banged his head on the wall for two days before being placed in a safety restraint chair, which bonded his arms and legs. Corrections officers said they tried to remove James from the chair several times on the days leading up to his death on June 1, 2021, but he was resistant.
During the initial attempt on May 29, 2021, jail staff said they told James to lie on his shoulder and roll onto his stomach, and James refused. Video footage released by the sheriff’s county shows James was wearing a suicide-prevention gown and had a suicide-prevention blanket on his face.
“Get off me, yo!” James reportedly shouted. “I’m being sexually harassed! I don’t lay down for nobody!”
When they successfully removed James from the restraint chair the day before he died, he started hitting his head on the wall. When he refused to stop, an officer tased James, but the taser did not completely connect, according to Hanson’s account of body camera video.
The next day, he reportedly hit his head on the wall again, so officers entered James’ cell with pepper spray. They tased him and placed him back in the restraint chair.
Sherry James’ attorney Kevin O’Connor said the officers were required to monitor her son’s breathing after they pepper-sprayed him but did not do so.
Video footage shows five officers placed James back in the chair, and a nurse tried to remove the taser prongs from his back. One of the officers pushed James’ head and neck forward, while others pulled and pushed down on his head, shoulders and back.
A muffled James told officers to get off of him and he could not breathe. At one point, James moved from side to side while he told officers to get off of him. Another officer joined the other in pressing down on his neck in response to his movement.
At another point, James’ handcuffs became loose, and officers doubled them. A total of seven others surrounded James while his neck was restrained for 3 minutes and 6 seconds. Two of them tried to remove the prongs before they realized that he was unresponsive, court documents and video show.
The video shows James’ body was limp when the officers released the hold on his neck.
O’Connor said the officers violated the man’s rights, wrongly caused his death and failed to protect him.
He has accused the jail nurse of negligence and said she failed to move with urgency to give James proper care after he became nonresponsive. He also claimed that Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling created a false narrative of Malcolm James’ death by putting out a video of him slamming his head into the wall.
“This is an outrage. I am saddened,” O’Connor said. “I’m disturbed that we are here. How in the wake of Georgia Floyd does something like this happen again and again and again.”
The attorney is seeking monetary compensation for Sherry James for damages, attorneys fees and other costs associated with her son’s wrongful death.
Hanson, the district attorney, said her decision not to pursue charges is based on the differences in expert opinion from a county medical examiner and those of two outside experts her office commissioned to weigh in on the case.
After watching the video, Darrell Ross, a national expert in use of force, said police had to use the amount of force they used to protect James. Milwaukee County Assistant Medical Examiner Dr. Jessica Lelinski agreed that Malcolm James died of asphyxia.
However, Dr. Tom Neuman, a national expert in respiratory physiology and asphyxia, said based on how James was leaning forward, he could not have died due to asphyxia.
“Mr. James suffered from significant heart disease, obesity, hypertensive cardiovascular disease and an enlarged heart that would have put him at risk for a sudden cardiac death,” Neuman said in his report.
O’Connor believes the officers did not follow proper training procedures.
“You’re going to hear on the video an officer describing; these are like Keystone Cops. I mean it’s horrible. They said, ‘Malcolm, this is only going to take about ten seconds to remove these prongs.’ OK? Because it should take ten seconds if you have the removal tool,” said Attorney Kevin O’Connor.
“And they said, ‘OK, so we’re going to move you forward.’ They moved him forward for three minutes because they didn’t even have the tool to remove it when they’re doing it to him. I mean, it’s crazy what they were doing. This was a horrible procedure. Anybody that looks at this and says that this is the proper procedure, you’ll see it. You’ll be like, what are they doing?”
Racine County Sgt. Michael Luell said he could not provide specific answers on the department’s procedure for responding to mental health calls and did not respond to follow-up requests for further elaboration.
However, an attorney representing the sheriff’s office has denied the allegations in the lawsuit.
Samuel C. Hall Jr., told The Journal Times that authorities are conducting several reviews of James’ death. Hall also addressed concerns over the treatment of James’ mental health issues.
“As Sheriff Schmaling has noted many times since this tragedy occurred, upon completion of the reviews of this incident, he welcomes the opportunity to continue these discussions with mental health professionals and the community at large to determine how we can all better assist people experiencing mental health issues,” Hall said.
