The Walker County Sheriff’s Office says an employee with access to its social media accounts made early-morning comments on Facebook accusing Anthony “Tony” Mitchell’s family of trying to profit off his death.

That employee, whose identity is not being released, has had his access to all of the department’s social media accounts removed, sheriff’s officials say.

Under a February 3 post on the sheriff’s Facebook page about the Little Miss Sheriff program, the comments veered away from the program and turned to the in-custody death of Mitchell, which is now the subject of a lawsuit.

Among the comments made by the sheriff’s employee about 1 a.m. Friday included:

– “Stop being ignorant with no facts”

– “We want people to live and thrive why didn’t his family get him help for years if they felt he was with mental illness until they could profit from it’’

– “Every lawyer and investigator have the videos no freezer was ever involved how bout see what the investigation says instead of making assumptions”

– “we try to help people always have and baseless claims from lawyers that have no idea what happens is not truth.”

The sheriff’s office on Friday said the comments posted on Friday were not made by Sheriff Nick Smith or Public Information Officer T.J. Armstrong.

“They were made by another admin who has since been removed from all social media accounts concerning the sheriff’s office,’’ the sheriff’s office said.

Mitchell, 33, died Jan. 26 at Walker Baptist Medical Center, just over two weeks after he was arrested on charges that he fired on Walker County deputies as they responded to a welfare check requested by his family.

A cause of death has not yet been finalized.

Lawyers for Mitchell’s mother filed the lawsuit, claiming that Mitchell died of hypothermia. They argued jail deputies tased Mitchell and likely locked him in a freezer.

The federal lawsuit alleges abuse and medical neglect of Mitchell at the hands of Sheriff Nick Smith and staff at the county jail, including corrections officers, nurses and an investigator.

Attorneys for the sheriff’s office last week responded to the lawsuit in filings saying Mitchell was never placed in a freezer, and asked that the allegation be removed from the lawsuit.

“He was not held in a freezer,’’ the document stated. “In fact, the only times that he left the booking area was to attend his 72-hour hearing and to be transported to the hospital.”

“This case embodies the adage, ‘A lie is halfway around the world before the truth can put on its boots,’’’ lawyers wrote.

Mitchell family attorneys responded on Monday by saying the claim was mischaracterized.

They said the claim about the freezer was not definite, but rather a likely possible explanation for Mitchell’s death and that a physician they interviewed for the case told them as much.

“If defendants had another means of bringing an inmates’ body temp. to 72 degrees or lower, plaintiff will uncover that during the discovery phase of this case,” the family’s lawyers argued.

Attorneys for the jail nurses are asking the court to strike from the lawsuit allegations against the nurses that the attorney states are false and intended to create negative publicity. The nurses asked on three occasions that Mitchell be taken to the emergency room, their lawyer states.