The family of a man who hanged himself in the Bradley County Jail last year has filed a $5 million federal lawsuit in the death.
Ralph Nelms’ ex-wife, Kristin Danielle Nelms, filed the suit this week on behalf of his two young sons, claiming jail personnel knew Nelms was addicted, mentally ill and suicidal but failed to properly monitor and supervise him.
The defendants are Bradley County government, Sheriff Eric Watson, three corrections officers identified by name and four “John Doe” employees of the sheriff’s office.
The lawsuit claims Nelms was charged on Sept. 15, 2016, with multiple counts of theft and burglary and booked into the jail. It states he was being held in the booking area, “an area where Bradley County Jail staff can see into the fronts of all the cells.
“Despite the fact that [Nelms] exhibited unstable, erratic behaviors making him a suicide risk,” the lawsuit states, Bradley County Jail staff failed put him in a suicide-proof cell. Instead, they left him in the booking area, “covering the window completely blocking their view into his cell as well as leaving him with an instrument to complete any suicidal ideations, his cloth gown straps,” the suit states.