Rankin Sheriff’s Department faces another lawsuit, this one for a jail suicide

Six detention officers, the sheriff and Rankin County are named in a wrongful death lawsuit alleging they failed to intervene even after knowing a jailed man was at high risk for suicide. 

Brian Christopher Ray, 34, died Nov. 10, 2020, about a week after arriving at the jail. He had lived with substance abuse and addiction, and he was a pretrial detainee awaiting disposition for a charge of possession of a controlled substance, according to the lawsuit complaint. 

The lawsuit demands a jury trial for the violation of Ray’s 14th Amendment right, as a jail detainee, to medical care and protection from harm. 

“The individual defendants agreed and acted in concert to deprive Chris of adequate or any medical attention or measures to prevent self harm, or to report his failed suicide attempt to medical personnel or other jail officials,” the lawsuit complaint states. 

On Nov. 8, 2020, the six jail staff saw Ray attempt to take his life through live video surveillance and the complaint alleges they “refused and failed” to take remedial measures to reduce or eliminate Ray’s “known serious risk of harm,” believing he would not attempt suicide again. 

That evening, Ray hanged himself. 

It took about 45 minutes for the defendants to intervene – going to his cell and calling for medical assistance. The lawsuit states by the time emergency medical personnel arrived nearly an hour later, Ray had no pulse and was not breathing. 

At the hospital, Ray regained a pulse, but he was diagnosed with severe brain damage and unable to survive without extreme medical intervention. He died the next day. 

The lawsuit was filed Nov. 7 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Missisisppi by Katie Fondren Carson, the administrator of Ray’s estate and the mother of his child. 

The defendants in the lawsuit are Rankin County, Sheriff Bryan Bailey and jail staff: Lt. Amanda Thompson, shift supervisor Sgt. Joshua Bridges and detention officers Mason Black, Jonathan Franklin, Tommy Hildesheim and Patrick Thornton. 

As of Tuesday, the county has not responded to the complaint. Defendants typically have 21 days to respond to a complaint. 

Jason Dare, attorney for the sheriff’s office did not respond to a request for comment. 

The lawsuit complaint lists multiple failures to intervene: The defendants did not notify medical personnel or other jail officials about the suicide attempt; they failed to seek medical care for Ray; they did not report and document the incident; they failed to place him on suicide watch and they failed to remove items from his cell that could be used to hurt himself. 

Failure to eliminate Ray’s known risk of suicide harm went against Rankin County policies designed to reduce or eliminate harm, including jail detainee suicide, according to the lawsuit.

Disregard for written policy happened because of a “law enforcement culture within the RCDC of ignoring known health risks to detainees and inmates so pervasive as to constitute a practice, custom, and usage of the Defendant Rankin County,” the complaint alleges. 

In “furtherance of their conspiracy” to deprive Ray of his civil right, they provided false and misleading information to family members and emergency medical personnel, according to the complaint. 

For example, the defendants’ incident reports did not mention that they saw Ray’s earlier suicide attempt and how they did not take action based on that knowledge, according to the complaint. They also falsely claimed that someone checked on Ray and saw he was alert a half an hour before his suicide attempt. 

His mother was first told about his suicide attempts the next day, and the complaint alleges Sheriff Bailey falsey told her the attempts happened just after midnight – “an effort to deflect suspicion of any misconduct on the part of his detention officers.” 

The lawsuit comes as the sheriff’s office faces scrutiny and a separate lawsuit for a nearly fatal raid at the home of two Black men carried out by a group of deputies and a Richland police officer who called themselves the Goon Squad. According to a Justice Department investigation, they shocked the men with Tasers, threatened to sexually assault them and a deputy shoved a gun into the mouth of one of the men, Michael Jenkins, and pulled the trigger, injuring him. 

In August, the deputies and the local police officer pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges. They are expected to be sentenced in 2024. 

Ray was born and lived in Rankin County and was a “Jack of All Trades,” according to his obituary. His interests were broad and included outdoor activities such as bowhunting and fishing, sports like baseball and soccer, cooking, art and welding, according to his obituary. 

Most of all, Ray enjoyed spending time with his son. 

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or text the Crisis Text Line from anywhere in the U.S. at 741741

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