The Frontier is suing to find out how a man in the throes of a mental health crisis died in an

The Frontier is suing to find out how a man in the throes of a mental health crisis died in an Oklahoma jail


For more than a year, jail officials in Pottawatomie County have denied The Frontier access to records from one man’s death after a struggle with detention officers.

So The Frontier filed a lawsuit on Monday against the public trust that oversees the jail. The lawsuit seeks to force the Pottawatomie County Public Safety Center Trust to release surveillance video and other documents in connection with the death of Ronald Gene Given.

Given, 42, was in the throes of a mental health crisis and died after jailers restrained him at the Pottawatomie County Public Safety Center in January 2019. The state medical examiner’s officer ruled Given’s death a homicide, but no one has ever faced criminal charges in connection with his death.

Given’s aunt, Eva Given Kopaddy, filed a federal lawsuit in December that claims surveillance footage from the jail show that a detention officer held Given down by pressing a knee on his neck, which ultimately caused his death. A district judge ordered the release of the surveillance footage to Given Kopaddy and her attorneys in May, but only under seal, meaning it will not become public record.

Read more: https://www.readfrontier.org/stories/the-frontier-is-suing-to-find-out-how-a-man-in-the-throes-of-a-mental-health-crisis-died-in-an-oklahoma-jail/