Jurors in a federal civil rights case awarded $8.3 million to the family of Cedric Lofton, a foster youth who died in 2021 after being held in a face-down restraint at a Wichita juvenile correctional facility.
Jurors ruled that Sedgwick County juvenile officers and staffers had used excessive force or failed to intervene in the actions that led to the teenager’s death, court documents show.
Lofton was taken into custody after his foster father called 911 one September night seeking emergency mental health care for the 17-year-old. But instead of bringing him to a hospital for an evaluation, the responding Wichita police officers strapped him into a full-body restraint and leg shackles and transported him to a juvenile detention facility.
While being escorted to a holding cell, Lofton tried to free himself. That’s when four juvenile corrections officers took the 135-pound teen to the ground and held him in a face-down restraint for 39 minutes. They released him only after they realized he’d stop breathing.
Lofton died two days later. The Sedgwick County Medical Examiner ruled his death a homicide resulting from “complications of cardiopulmonary arrest sustained after physical struggle while restrained in the prone position.”
District Attorney Marc Bennett eventually determined that the state’s “stand your ground” law made it impossible to charge the involved officers because it gave them the right to use physical force in self-defense. Even so, the incident, which was reviewed by both the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice, led to local reforms, including the creation of a 24/7 mobile crisis unit to address mental health emergencies.
In June 2022, Lofton’s brother, Marquan Teetz, filed the federal civil rights case that resulted in this week’s ruling.
That suit, filed in a Kansas U.S. District Court, alleged that Lofton’s civil rights were violated by officers and staffers involved in the restraint or who failed to intervene. Their actions constituted excessive force, the suit contended, because Lofton was unarmed and already restrained by leg shackles and handcuffs.
The suit also argued that pre-existing problems in Kansas’ youth justice system were known and not addressed, pointing to a 2016 report that alerted state leaders to “systemic deficiencies” at the facility where Lofton was fatally restrained. Those deficiencies included an “inability to handle children with mental health issues,” and a need for “training on deescalation techniques and management of risk.”
In a statement released following news of the jury’s decision, Sedgwick County said it “continues to follow its values in integrity and service to the people” and was reviewing the verdict and “discussing next steps.”
An attorney for Lofton’s family, John Marrese, put the ruling in the context of other deaths that involved dangerous holds.
Lofton’s death came just 16 months after that of another foster youth, Cornelius Fredericks, who also died after being restrained face-down. The 16-year-old was subdued by seven staffers in the cafeteria of a Michigan residential facility after throwing a sandwich.
“It’s a good development in the world of prolonged prone restraint in terms of a jury acknowledging how dangerous it is and the fact that it can be fatal,” Marrese told the Associated Press.
