The Walker County Sheriff’s Office, through a Montgomery-based attorney, filed a motion to strike specific details in the complaint filed against them in the death of inmate Anthony “Tony” Mitchell. The filing also asks for a dismissal as well as sanctions against the Mitchell family’s attorneys.
J. Randall McNeill filed the motion on Friday afternoon, saying in the document, “The court may strike from a pleading an insufficient defense or any redundant, immaterial, impertinent, or scandalous matter.”
The motion specifically asks for the allegation that Mitchell was placed in a freezer to be struck from the complaint.
“These allegations are the definition of scandalous,” the filing read. “Based on nothing but speculation, Plaintiff accuses the Defendants of murdering Plaintiff’s decedent, Tony Mitchell (Mitchell) by placing him in a freezer until he suffered and died from hypothermia and then accuse the Defendants of covering up the murder. These allegations intentionally created a firestorm of derision that swept not only these Defendants but law enforcement in general and caused criminal investigations to be opened against the Defendants. These speculative allegations are false. Mitchell’s incarceration is captured on video. He was not held in a freezer. In fact, the only times that he left the booking area was to attend his 72-hour hearing and to be transported to the hospital. The allegations are pure fiction that were included to create negative publicity; they should be struck from the Complaint.”
In a footnote on Page 2 of the motion, the attorney for the WCSO says on Feb. 28 that Mitchell’s attorneys had been offered the opportunity to review the video obtained in the case.
“Plaintiff’s counsels have not contacted Defendants to view the video and have not withdrawn the baseless and scandalous allegations,” the document reads.
The filing goes on to say, “This case embodies the adage, ‘A lie is halfway around the world before the truth can put on its boots.’ Mitchell was never placed in a freezer. The only time that Mitchell left the booking area where he was housed was to attend his 72-hour hearing and to go to the hospital. Unlike Plaintiff’s rank and scandalous speculation, there is proof of Defendants’ conduct because Mitchell’s incarceration is captured on video. These videos have been reviewed, and Plaintiff’s allegations did not happen. Indeed, Plaintiff’s counsels in their media blitz appeared on CNN and admitted that they do not have proof that Mitchell was placed in a freezer, yet they deliberately included these patently false and explosive allegations.”
In a footnote on Page 3 of the motion, the WCSO attorney writes concerning Mitchell being placed in a freezer that “Plaintiff makes this bold statement without the benefit of an autopsy report and assumes that Mitchell’s temperature was properly taken at the hospital and assumes that no other medical condition caused Mitchell’s purported hypothermia.”
The motion to strike asserts “a reasonable sanction is an order dismissing this case with prejudice and directing Plaintiff to pay the Defendants’ attorney fees and costs expended in defense of this case,” before later adding, “Plaintiff and the conduct of her counsels exceeded the bounds of proper litigation. Harsh sanctions are warranted to dissuade Plaintiff counsels and others from engaging in such intentional and dangerous behavior.”
McNeill also filed a separate legal document to answer the initial complaint filed against Sheriff Nick Smith and the Walker County Sheriff’s Office.
Highlights of those answers include denying Mitchell was housed naked in a bare, concrete isolation cell, as well as denying the released video showed Mitchell was “not conscious or alert” when he left the jail or that his heart stopped before he arrived at Walker Baptist Medical Center and never restarted. Both legal documents filed on Friday are attached to this story.
