The family of Stanley Wilson Jr., a former Detroit Lions cornerback who died while in custody, has secured a legal victory in their pursuit of accountability for his death. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has ruled that the family’s wrongful death lawsuit against the county can move forward, rejecting officials’ attempts to dismiss the case.
Judge Richard Fruin delivered his decision on Wednesday, denying the county’s motion to dismiss the family’s fourth amended complaint. County attorneys had argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed because the family allegedly failed to follow proper procedural requirements before filing their legal action.
Wilson, who was 40 years old at the time of his death and had struggled with mental illness, died on February 1, 2023, while incarcerated at the Twin Towers Jail in downtown Los Angeles. The official cause of death was determined to be pulmonary thromboembolism, a blood clot in his lungs.
The county’s legal team contended that the family had substantially altered their explanation of how Wilson died between their initial claim filing in 2023 and their current amended complaint. According to county attorney Chandler Parker, the family originally alleged that Wilson’s death resulted from excessive force used during restraint procedures in the hours before he died. However, the current complaint focuses on allegations of inadequate medical treatment during his incarceration.
Parker emphasized that the county had conducted an extensive investigation in response to the original claim, including reviewing hours of video footage to examine whether sheriff’s deputies had used concealed excessive force. He argued that the family’s shift to medical negligence claims represented an entirely new theory that wasn’t included in their original government claim, which the county maintains should have been filed as a prerequisite to any lawsuit.
“Each theory must be included in a government claim,” Parker stated during the hearing. “This is a completely different theory, not an elaboration.”
Judge Fruin rejected these arguments, finding that the core essence of the family’s claims remained consistent. In his ruling, he stated that even though the operative complaint now emphasizes medical negligence and unconstitutional confinement conditions rather than excessive force, the fundamental allegation remains unchanged: that the county’s policies and practices regarding mentally ill inmates wrongfully caused Wilson’s death.
Wilson’s path to incarceration began in August 2022, when he was arrested for property-related offenses following what was reported as a psychotic episode at a Hollywood Hills residence. After his arrest, he was held at the downtown jail facility.
During his incarceration, Wilson was evaluated and found incompetent to stand trial. A court subsequently ordered that he be transferred to Metropolitan State Hospital by December 5, 2022. However, the family’s lawsuit alleges that the county failed to comply with this court-ordered deadline and denied Wilson access to urgent and necessary medical care for serious and deteriorating health conditions.
The transfer to the hospital facility didn’t occur until February 1, 2023 — nearly two months after the court-ordered deadline. Wilson was pronounced dead that same day upon arrival at the hospital.
Wilson’s professional football career had ended in 2008 following an injury, and the years that followed were marked by several encounters with law enforcement. His death while in custody has now become the subject of this ongoing legal battle, with his family seeking to hold Los Angeles County responsible for the circumstances surrounding his passing.
The judge’s decision to allow the lawsuit to proceed means the family can continue their legal pursuit against the county, potentially leading to a full trial on the merits of their wrongful death claims.
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