Michelle McDonald-Witherspoon, Individually and as Administratrix of the Estate of Kenyada Jones v. Amber Browne, et al.
DueProcess
Whether a probation officer's actions violate the disabled person's rights under the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment, giving rise to a civil claim under 42 USC §1983
QUESTION PRESENTED 1. Whether a probation officer with no medical or psychiatric training who is in charge of a mentally disabled (schizophrenic) person (who is out of jail on probation and who is waiting for his mother to arrive to take him for psychiatric treatment), and has that person arrested and returned to prison for the sole purpose of receiving psychiatric treatment in prison (thus preventing him from receiving treatment at a psychiatric hospital) based solely on the fact that he is mentally disabled (whereby he would not have been arrested and returned to jail if he were not mentally disabled), violates the disabled person’s rights under the Equal Protection clause of the 14 Amendment to the US Constitution giving rise to a civil claim under 42 USC §1983 when the disabled person dies in prison a few days later from a medication overdose due to the failure to receive competent mental health treatment at the prison (where he was placed in general population and given a month’s supply of medication to keep on his person in accordance with the prison’s policy), where it was foreseeable that the disabled person would not receive the treatment he needed in prison thus placing him in serious risk of harm.