Indicted Walker County deputies allegedly stomped on Tony Mitchell’s genitals while he was handcuffed
Two Walker County sheriff’s deputies have been indicted on federal charges involving the mistreatment and abuse of Tony Mitchell, who later died while in the custody of the jail.
Though 10 former jail employees have agreed to plead guilty to federal charges in connection to Tony Mitchell’s 2023 death, these are the first indictments alleging wrongdoing from Walker County Sheriff’s Office employees assigned outside of the jail.
A federal grand jury issued deprivation of rights indictments last week against Carl Lofton Carpenter and James Matthew “Matt” Handley. They were made public Tuesday.
The indictment does not publicly identify the inmate but the date of the inmate’s arrest and the inmate’s age are the same as Mitchell.
A man claiming to have a “portal to Hell’’ is under arrest after reportedly shooting at Walker County sheriff’s deputies. (Walker County Sheriff’s Office)
Mitchell was arrested Jan. 12, 2023, during a mental health welfare check at his home. Authorities said he fired a gun while deputies were on his property.
Deputies responded that Thursday afternoon to Lost Creek Road near Carbon Hill on a welfare check after family members of Mitchell feared he could harm himself or someone else.
Carpenter and Handley reportedly transported Mitchell to the jail.
Documents allege Carpenter “stomped on (the inmate’s) genitals with a shod foot” while the inmate lay face up on the ground, handcuffed behind his back.
The indictment also alleges Carpenter and Handley “rammed” the inmate into the exterior of a patrol vehicle and kicked his legs.
Additionally, Handley is accused of giving false testimony to federal grand jury.
Specifically, the indictment says, Handley testified that the suspect – believed to be Mitchell – walked to the patrol vehicle when, in fact, he was “dragged” to the vehicle.
That came after Carpenter reportedly stomped on Mitchell’s genitals, and Handley testified that Mitchell “chose” not walk upon removal from the patrol vehicle in the jail’s sallyport.
The deputies allegedly omitted information that Mitchell “had been the subject of the force,” which would explain why he had difficultly walking after he was moved from the patrol vehicle.
Sheriff Nick Smith and Carpenter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Efforts to locate Handley for comment weren’t immediately successful.
Both are set to be arraigned later this month.
Mitchell, 33, died Jan. 26, 2023, at Walker Baptist Medical Center, just over two weeks after his arrest.
Subsequent court documents have detailed the horrific conditions of his time in the jail and death.
The county coroner’s death certificate listed Mitchell’s manner of death as homicide and listed the causes as hypothermia and sepsis “resulting from infected injuries obtained during incarceration and medical neglect.”
Anthony “Tony” Mitchell (Facebook-Justice for Tony Mitchell)
When Mitchell arrived at the jail, the documents state, he had difficulty walking or standing on his own. He was disoriented, non-combative, and could not follow instructions.
“His face was painted blue from an unknown substance and officers dressed him in a ‘turtle suit,’ often used for suicidal inmates, over his otherwise nude body.
Mitchell, however, was not put on suicide watched.
Mitchell was held in an area known as BK5, often referred to as the drunk tank.
BK5 was unlike all other cells in the jail, but for observation cell AH3, which had no hole in the floor and was used only for detainees for hours at a time. It did not have a sink, toilet, access to any running water or a raised platform to be used as a bed.
Court records show Mitchell never received any medical evaluation until the morning of his death, two weeks after he was arrested.
In fact, jailers actively denied Mitchell medical access by falsely telling medical staff that Mitchell was too combative to be evaluated “when in truth that was not the case,” documents state.
“Calling (Mitchell) combative was an excuse to mistreat him,’’ documents state. “There was no conduct that could have been committed by (Mitchell) that would have justified the denial of medical access.”
The efforts to deny Mitchell medical and mental health care persisted event though he was frequently expressing severe mental health symptoms such as talking incoherently about “demons” and “portals.”
“He was often covered in feces, which was an indication that he could not care for himself,’’ records state.
Mitchell deteriorated over the course of his incarceration.
“At the time he passed, (Mitchell) was almost always naked, wet, cold, and covered in feces while lying on the cement floor without a mat or blanket,’’ the records state.
By the second week of being jailed, the agreement states, Mitchell was largely listless and mostly unresponsive to questions from officers.
Repeatedly during Mitchell’s incarceration, records show, corrections officers actively chose not help him, and would dismiss his needs by saying, “(Expletive) him, he gets what he gets since he shot at cops, or words to that effect,’’ the document states.
The officers also repeatedly made comments that Mitchell “should have been killed because he shot at deputies rather than being brough to the jail,’’ the document says.
On the morning of January 26, 2023, a nurse repeatedly told jailers that Mitchell urgently needed to be taken to a hospital or he could die.
They did not call an ambulance and instead waited more than three hours before taking him to the hospital in the back of a patrol car.
When he arrived at the hospital, Mitchell’s internal body temperature was reportedly 72 degrees.
Doctors tried for three hours to resuscitate him before he was declared dead at 1:15 pm.
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