NEW ORLEANS -- A new lawsuit against the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office accuses it of ignoring a prisoner until he died.
Mendy Richoux, the wife of the decedent, Shallen Richoux, filed a federal complaint on July 26 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana against Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, Sheriff Joseph P. Lopinto, CorrectHealth Jefferson and Ironshore Specialty Insurance Company.
According to the complaint, Shallen Richoux was booked into the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center on July 24, 2020, for domestic abuse battery.
On July 26, 2020, Richoux was being held in a tank with other inmates, and for an unknown reason, began throwing up. He was removed from the tank and inspected by a nurse and then put back into the tank, the suit says.
After another period of time, Shallen Richoux began throwing up again and having a seizure, causing officers to remove him from the tank and place him in a solitary holding tank.
Shallen allegedly was left in that holding cell for an unknown number of hours and not checked on or followed up with by either officers of the sheriff’s department or CorrectHealth Jefferson Staff. Shallen was allegedly ignored until later when a shift change was occurring and officers of the next shift were checking all inmates. He was found unresponsive and died shortly thereafter, the suit says.
Mendy Richoux seeks compensatory, punitive and nominal damages, attorney's fees and cost of suit. Richoux is represented by Stavros Panagoulopoulous.
U.S. District Court Eastern District of Louisiana case number 2:21-cv-01417-GGG-DMD