Family of Alegend Jones claim medical records show teen suffered massive injuries before death

Attorney Ben Crump and mother of Alegend Jones, Shona Garner-White said on Thursday they have the medical records that show Jones suffered brain compression and other significant injuries that led to her death.

This is not the official autopsy report. In a statement, Youth Villages said they will not comment on anything medically until the official autopsy report is released.

The medical records that Garner-White obtained show that Jones suffered from Rhabdomyolysis, a rare condition in which muscle cells break down and release a substance into the blood. Rhabdomyolysis can lead to kidney failure often caused by direct or indirect muscle injury, Crump said.

Crump read off an enlarged photo of a Mayo Clinic webpage that explains what Rhabdomyolysis is and claimed that Jones suffered massive trauma which led to her death. The family and Crump called again for the release of the video that showed the incident that preceded the death of Jones.

"The video will show us what happened," Crump said. "Everybody will be able to make logical conclusions based on the diagnosis and the video, that will answer all the questions."

Youth Villages said in a statement that they are "fully transparent and working with all authorities," and cannot release the video footage due to "confidentiality and privacy laws."

Youth Villages also said that they met with Garder-White last week and have also received a representation letter from Crump earlier this week that they responded to and "offered to have a conversation" but are still awaiting a response.

Youth Villages has previously strongly denied that any staff physically mistreated Jones and has also disputed numerous other claims made by Crump and Garner-White.

The medical records, according to Crump, also said that Jones's chief complaint was of cardiac arrest, which caused her to be transported from the Youth Villages campus to the hospital.

Garner-White said that if Jones had presented with these same injuries in her care, she would be "sitting in jail."

Jones had spent the last two months in the care of Youth Villages after her mother asked the Department of Children's Services to take guardianship over Jones, though the mother would continue to have custody, to help with Jones' mental health struggles.

Jones' death was first reported in mid-November, in what Youth Villages described as an "incident" and "medical emergency" in a press release. In that release, Youth Villages said it did "not know the cause of the medical emergency" and denied that any abuses took place.

Lucas Finton contributed to this report.

Brooke Muckerman covers Shelby County Government for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at 901-484-6225, brooke.muckerman@commercialappeal.com and followed on X, formerly known as Twitter @BrookeMuckerman.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Family and attorney of Alegend Jones claim massive trauma led to death