“He prayed a lot”: Family demands answers after loved one died in Bibb Jail
Stephen Fossett died in May after a mental health episode while in custody
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The family of a Bibb County inmate who died while in custody earlier this year is demanding answers.
The family of Stephen Fossett is remembering him as someone who loved fishing, exercising, and praying.
“He was a praying man. He prayed a lot,” his mother, Paula Platt, said.
Platt and her attorneys held a news conference outside the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday. She said Fossett had schizophrenia and was serving three years for criminal trespassing but was in a special program because of his mental health. Attorneys claim Fossett was tased three times, including once while he was handcuffed, while he was having a medical emergency inside of the jail. They say Fossett was then restrained and sent to the hospital, where he later died.
Attorney Nathan Fitzpatrick said it has been more than 90 days, and after multiple requests for documents from the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office, they’ve heard nothing.
“Any and all documents, any and all footage, it should be made available,” he said. “If there’s any sort of investigation that exempts them from disclosure, that needs to be made public. To our knowledge, there isn’t any investigation beyond what’s going on internally, what’s going on in the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office.”
Attorneys are calling on the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and the District Attorney to investigate.
Platt says she hopes more mental health experts can go inside the jail and respond to 911 calls. She says she hopes something like this doesn’t happen to another family.
“There’s so much stigma about mental health people, but they’re some of the strongest people I know,” she said. “When you can battle your mind 24 hours a day and still get up the next day to fight, that’s an amazing person.”
The Bibb County Sheriff’s Office said it cannot comment further because this is an ongoing investigation.
