The death of a Wichita teenager at the Sedgwick County juvenile detention center was said to have been foreshadowed five years earlier by a state inspection that noted systemic deficiencies in the facility's handling of children with mental health issues, according to a federal civil rights lawsuit filed Monday.
Lodron'a brother, Marquan Teetz, acting as representative of Lofton's estate, sued Sedgwick County, five detention center employees, the city of Wichita, and the unidentified police officers. According to the complaint, Teetz seeks to "illuminate the truth and obtain some measure of justice for Cedric's death."
Teetz said Monday that he is heartbroken from his brother's death, adding that he sued "just to show they can't get away with it. I want to prove we still have a justice system."
The county did not immediately reply to emails from The Associated Press seeking comment.
The Wichita Police Department said it cannot comment on pending litigation.
Sedgwick County's Corrections Director Glenda Martens has described what happened as "tragic" but said that the corrections workers followed policy in restraining the Cedric Lofton. Wichita police have said they've been looking into the actions officers took when booking Lofton.
No one has been criminally charged in Lofton's death. In January, Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said the state's "stand-your-ground" law prevents him from bringing any charges because staff members were protecting themselves.
Teetz's lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages in an amount to be determined by a jury.
