Fulton County Jail settles $4m in bed bug death case
The family of LaShawn Thompson, a 35-year-old man who tragically died after being ‘eaten alive’ by bed bugs in his prison cell, has reached a $4 million settlement with officials in Fulton County.
Thompson was discovered deceased in Fulton County Jail in September 2022, after being arrested the previous June for simple battery against police officials.
In January, the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office released an autopsy report listing Thompson’s cause of death as ‘undetermined’, prompting his family to order an independent autopsy in May to seek further explanation.
The results of the independent autopsy, obtained by ABC News, revealed that ‘dehydration, malnutrition, severe body insect infestation’, along with ‘untreated decompensated schizophrenia’, contributed to Thompson’s death.
Michael Harper, the attorney representing Thompson’s family, informed Insider that officials at the jail had ‘literally watched his health decline until he died’, stating that the cell was ‘unfit even for a diseased animal’.
READ ALSO: Family of man who died in Atlanta jail allege he was “eaten alive” by bed bugs
Harper added that despite having a plan to move Thompson to the medical observation unit, it never materialized, and they found him dead, overrun by bed bugs.
Attorneys also argued that Thompson’s mental illness rendered him incapable of caring for himself in the cell.
Photos of Thompson covered with bed bugs, along with images of his filthy cell, went viral after his passing, leading Thompson’s family to take legal action against Fulton County.
On August 2, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners voted 6-0 to approve the $4 million (£3.14m) settlement for the family.
This agreement comes after Fulton County Sheriff Patrick ‘Pat’ Labat acknowledged to ABC News in May that ‘painful failures’ contributed to Thompson’s tragic death, reassuring that sweeping changes have been implemented at the jail since the incident.
Michael Potter, an entomologist at the University of Kentucky specializing in bed bugs, explained to BBC News in April that while bed bugs are rarely deadly, they feed on blood and large numbers of them can consume significant amounts of blood, potentially causing dangerous allergic reactions.
He noted that he’d ‘never seen anything quite to this level’ of bugs, as evidenced in the photos from Thompson’s cell.
In light of the settlement, Harper stated that Thompson’s family would not be commenting further, emphasizing that the Fulton County Commissioners’ vote speaks for itself.
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