ROME, Georgia — The family of a 16-year-old girl who died in a Georgia juvenile detention center in 2022 has filed a lawsuit over her death, alleging she was denied care that could have saved her life.
Melanie Hogan Sluder and Ricky Shawn Curtis filed a federal complaint Tuesday in the Northern District of Georgia in the death of their daughter, This was reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Alexis Sluder was taken to the Elbert Shaw Regional Youth Detention Center in Dalton after her Aug. 26, 2022, arrest on drug possession and theft charges. There, she suffered a medical emergency from drugs she had taken earlier in the day. However, she was not taken to a hospital and died about seven hours after being processed at the facility, the newspaper reported.
“As a result of Defendants’ actions, Alexis Sluder experienced pain and suffering, including, but not limited to, a very long and painful death during which she convulsed, became overheated, breathed heavily, writhed in pain, and begged for help,” the lawsuit says.
“I didn’t get to see her pick out her first car, go to prom, or graduate with her friends this past year, things she was looking forward to,” Sluder’s mother said in a statement. “I am lost without her and not a minute goes by that I don’t think about her and what she would do.”
a Whitfield County Grand Jury Indicted the detention center’s former director and nurse, along with three former guards, all of whom were named in the lawsuit and accused of violating Sluder’s constitutional rights. All were fired and face child abuse charges, officials said.
Other suspects named as suspects include Gilmer County and a sheriff’s office sergeant who took Sluder to the detention center after her arrest.
The lawsuit alleges that the defendants were aware of Sluder’s medical risks and prior drug use but failed to “continuously monitor her health, safety and welfare” or “respond reasonably” after she became distressed and asked for help.
“Alexis suffered a painful overdose that lasted over four hours, during which she convulsed, writhed in pain, breathed heavily, sweated profusely, and cried into the camera that was monitoring her,” the complaint said.
An autopsy conducted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation revealed the cause of death was methamphetamine and amphetamine poisoning.
“The complaint seeks to rectify Alexis’s wrongful death and hold accountable those who had the responsibility to help her by depriving her of basic and necessary medical care in violation of her constitutional rights. Their objectively unreasonable and willfully indifferent decisions led not only to Alexis Sluder’s death, but also to the extreme pain she endured in the final hours of her life,” the family’s attorneys wrote in a statement.
A Department of Juvenile Justice spokesperson said they were aware a lawsuit had been filed, “but it is our standard practice not to comment on pending litigation.”