CHESAPEAKE
The day after 19-year-old Musa Jassey left the Chesapeake jail, he died.
Cardiac arrhythmia, according to his death certificate.
Mariama Manjang, Jassey’s aunt, filed a $17 million wrongful death lawsuit Monday in Chesapeake Circuit Court. She blames unnamed employees of the Chesapeake Sheriff’s Office and Conmed Inc., the jail’s medical service contractor, for not realizing something was wrong.
„Had they not been deliberately indifferent, they … would have figured out what was wrong and done something,“ said S.W. Dawson, Manjang’s attorney.
Major David Hackworth, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office, and Thomas Fry, chief financial officer for Conmed, said their organizations do not comment on pending litigation.
According to jail and court records, Jassey was arrested March 10 and charged with arson of an unoccupied building.
In the lawsuit, Manjang, of Chesapeake, claims jail or Conmed staff found Jassey unconscious in a cell April 9 and offered him no medical help.
On April 16, Jassey was transferred to the jail’s medical facility. While there, however, jail and Conmed staff failed to provide Jassey with „requisite medical attention,“ the lawsuit said.
Jassey pleaded guilty April 30 to an amended charge and was released with time served.
About 24 hours later, he was dead.
