Fulton County and Sheriff Patrick Labat face another lawsuit from an inmate’s death in the troubled county jail.
The federal civil rights suit, filed July 31, deals with the fatal stabbing of Dino Walker, 33, on Sept. 22, 2022.
Attorney Harold Spence filed on behalf of Tamarra Stuppard-Wilson, administrator of Walker’s estate, seeking compensation for Walker’s death, damages, and payment of medical and burial expenses. It names as defendants the county, Labat, and detention officer Curt Muhammad.
The suit alleges that the county and Labat violated Walker’s right to safety while in county custody, and accuses Muhammad of negligence that contributed to Walker’s death. Both Fulton County and the sheriff’s office declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
A report says Walker was arrested by Atlanta police and booked into the county jail Dec. 7, 2020. He faced 17 charges, including robbery, aggravated assault, hit-and-run and felony theft, the report says.
Walker remained in jail, awaiting trial, until his death nearly two years later.
Walker was stabbed with a “makeshift knife or shank,” apparently made from part of the jail itself. Searches turned up hundreds of knives, which Labat has often displayed as evidence of the building’s condition.
That, overcrowding and understaffing made a recipe for mayhem, according to the lawsuit.
“In the first 10 months of 2023, the Fulton County Jail recorded approximately 293 stabbings, 337 fights, 922 assaults, and more than 1,186 confiscated knives/shanks,” it says.
Walker had already been attacked in April 2022 on the orders of a gang called “Slime,” according to the suit.
Labat was informed of the incident but kept Walker on the same floor, “in close proximity to violent, dangerous inmates who were affiliated with groups that had shown increasing hostility toward Walker,” the suit says.
Walker was being held on 7 North, which houses the “most dangerous detainees/inmates,” the lawsuit says.
Muhammad was the detention officer on a 12-hour shift the night of Sept. 22, 2022. He was required to check on inmates at least every 30 minutes, according to the suit.
About an hour and a half into his shift, Muhammad “abandoned his post,” the suit alleges. Half an hour later, inmates told another officer via intercom that “Walker was unresponsive on the Day Room floor in a pool of blood.”
An officer in the observation tower radioed Muhammad, telling him to return to his post; Muhammad replied “Stand by,” the suit says.
About 15 minutes after inmates reported Walker’s situation, an officer arrived from another unit to find Walker face down and motionless, and called for a stretcher. The lawsuit says a medic arrived 30 minutes after officers were first alerted to Walker’s situation.
About that time Muhammad returned to his post, an hour after leaving it, according to the court filing.
Plaintiffs argue that if Muhammad had stayed on the job he might have prevented the attack or at least saved Walker’s life with prompt medical attention. The county itself is liable because county commissioners didn’t provide enough funding to maintain the building, although they knew it was crumbling and inmates were making knives from its parts, the suit says.
And it cites acknowledged mishandling of the jail’s Inmate Welfare Fund, which plaintiffs argue could have been spent on jail safety. Instead, the filing includes more than $3 million spent on sheriff’s vehicles, staff retreats, public events, catered meals, flowers, festival booths and other items.
After revelation of such spending last year, county commissioners took over the Inmate Welfare Fund.
