'There was gross negligence': Family of Brieon Green addresses his suicide in jail 5 months ago

After a review of surveillance footage documenting the final minutes of 21-year-old Brieon Green's life, his family and their attorney were able to finally answer the question: What happened to Green after he was booked into the Milwaukee County Jail on June 26?

Twenty-eight minutes after Green was booked into the jail he committed suicide by strangling himself with a phone cord despite a jail officer walking past the cell as Green was taking his life, family attorney B'Ivory LaMarr said following a meeting Thursday in the Milwaukee County district attorney's office in which the family reviewed the footage as well as officer witness statements.

"This is a completely traumatic situation — it's deeply disturbing. I can't believe my eyes," LaMarr said at a news conference in front of the jail. "I cannot believe there was gross negligence with the complete indifference to a human life that took place at the facility on June 26."

LaMarr alleges that the jail had knowledge of his history of mental illness, including suicidal ideation during previous stays at the jail, and had failed to follow the protocols and adhere to standard operating procedures that would prevent an individual from committing suicide at the facility.

One major failure, LaMarr said, was the routine cell check.

"One of the most disturbing aspects we witnessed today is that this incident was completely preventable," said LaMarr. "We saw an officer go by Brieon Green's cell during the course of him taking his life."

"He did not take two seconds to look through the cell to check on the wellbeing of Brieon Green while he was in the middle of the course of strangling himself with the phone cord," he added.

Monique Brewer, Green's aunt, who spoke on behalf of the family said: "It could have been prevented. Somebody was standing right outside the door — right outside the door and didn't even look at him."

The family and LaMarr are still calling for the remainder of the investigative file to be released. They anticipate they will receive it in the coming weeks. The findings of the investigation has still not been made public.

Green's death had previously been ruled a suicide by the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office.

The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office, which could not legally investigate itself, turned the investigation over to the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department. They handed over their findings to the District Attorney's Office for review last month.

LaMarr said he has not been made aware of any charges planned in the incident.

The Sheriff’s Office spokesman, James Burnett told the Journal Sentinel that any inquiries regarding the investigation should be directed to the District Attorney's Office.

County Jail has a history of in-custody deaths

The county was the site of 18 law enforcement-custody deaths between 2008 through 2012. Those deaths had been classified as suicide or natural.

In 2016, Terrill Thomas, who was being held at the jail after having had a psychotic episode, according to his family, was placed in a segregation unit where guards shut off his water. Six days later, Thomas died of dehydration. Several guards were criminally charged in the case.

Between January 2020 and April 2021, the Milwaukee County Jail reported four in-custody deaths. Three of those cases were investigated as suicides, and the cause of the death for the fourth was determined to be acute heart failure, according to reports from the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office. Three guards involved in two of those incidents were fired or resigned.

The jail has also been facing major staffing shortages, which had reignited concerns about the jail's conditions and the treatment of individuals housed there awaiting trial.

Brieon Green's arrest

Green was arrested on June 26 at Bradford Beach on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and carrying a concealed weapon — a handgun — and three counts of felony bail jumping, according to the authorities.

Four hours later, he was pronounced dead after a correctional officer carried out a routine 30-minute check-in at his holding cell in the jail.

Following the results of the autopsy, Green's family requested an independent autopsy be carried out by a Michigan-based medical examiner. It was funded by ex-NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick's recent initiative that offers free secondary autopsies by board-certified forensic pathologists for families of those who have died under “police-related” circumstances, according to LaMarr. The autopsy has not been finalized due to pending information, according to LaMarr.

Green's mother, Laquita Dunlap, and LaMarr have both said Green had been formally diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder when he was younger.

In his most recent open case, the judge had requested a competency examination. Green was ultimately found competent to proceed with the case, court records show.

In August, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has represented the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Jacob Blake, issued a letter on behalf of Dunlap and LaMarr requesting former Milwaukee County Sheriff Earnell Lucas and Waukesha County Sheriff Eric Severson have a private meeting with Green's family to discuss the case. In the weeks following, LaMarr said that their request was not met.

The emergency retirement of former Milwaukee County Medical Examiner Dr. Brian Peterson on Sept. 19, which had a knock-on effect on many homicide trials, also resulted in a backlog in the release of Green's death certificate, according to Dunlap.

County attempts to address jail concerns

During a July 15 county committee meeting, Supervisor Ryan Clancy called on the sheriff's office for a response to his request for more information about suicide prevention and conditions at the jail.

Recently elected Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball, who was chief deputy at the time and represented Lucas and the office during the meeting, declined to comment at that time citing possible pending litigation.

In a Dec. 1 interview, Clancy said he was unsatisfied with the level of detail and the level access that he and the supervisors have to verify the conditions at the jail independently.

In a previous statement to the Journal Sentinel in August, Milwaukee County Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson wrote that she had asked Supervisor Felesia Martin, chair of the Audit Committee, to take the lead on legislation that would review the procedures and best practices for taking care of people in the jail, including preventing suicides.

Nicholson also previously asked the Office of Corporation Counsel and the sheriff’s office to report to the Judiciary, Law Enforcement and General Services Committee on the county's external investigation policy for deaths that occur involving the use of force, assaults, or unexplained or unusual circumstances at the Milwaukee County Jail and the House of Correction, and for an update on in-custody deaths. A report has since been shared with supervisors on the Judiciary, Safety and General Services Committee in closed session, according to Clancy.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brieon Green family accuses Milwaukee County in jail suicide