Isaiah Trammell Media Kit

Family Seeks Accountability After Son’s Death in Montgomery County Jail

Background

On March 13, 2023, Lebanon police officers arrived at the apartment of Isaiah Trammell, a 19-year-old autistic man, for what should have been a mental health response. Instead, they took Isaiah to the Montgomery County Jail after finding an arrest warrant that neither Isaiah nor his family knew existed.

After being booked in the jail, Isaiah told officers that he didn’t want to live, and he was placed on suicide watch. Officers should have provided him with a gown, blanket, and mattress, but they only gave him the gown, which was triggering for Isaiah as he didn’t like to have his body exposed. Throughout the early morning, Isaiah banged his head repeatedly while he was in his cell. Head-banging was one of Isaiah’s “stims,” or self-stimulatory behaviors, that helped him cope during stressful situations.

At 4:15 a.m., officers stated that Isaiah banged his head so hard into his cell door window that his head began to swell. The officers transferred Isaiah to a restraint chair, which strapped down his chest, wrists, and ankles. Physical restrictions are another common trigger for people with autism, and it took Isaiah an hour to calm down and communicate to an officer that he didn’t intend to harm himself. Rather than removing him from the restraint chair, deputies kept Isaiah restrained for another hour, which is a breach of protocol in Ohio.

Isaiah was then returned to his cell, where a sergeant refused to provide him with a blanket, mat, or the opportunity to call someone. After appearing in video court, Isaiah learned he would not be released from jail and he began to escalate. He screamed and asked to call his family while continuing to bang his head against the cell door. As deputies approached his cell, Isaiah followed their instructions to lay on his stomach, but he then jumped up and banged the right side of his head on the cinder block wall four times. The force knocked Isaiah out for several seconds, and the officers pinned him to the ground and then moved him back into the restraint chair.

Isaiah continued to ask for a phone call and his clothes, but officers moved him into a separate cell and repeatedly told him to cooperate. In the new cell, Isaiah banged his head on the back of the restraint chair and continued screaming.

Isaiah was unconscious when he was finally taken to the hospital, and he died three days later. An investigation by the sheriff’s department determined that jail staff provided appropriate care; however, there are policies and procedures in place to protect individuals with mental health conditions that were clearly not followed.

FG+G, along with co-counsel Stuckey Law Firm, are representing Isaiah’s family, which includes his mother, father, stepfather, and six siblings.

Isaiah’s family deserves answers and the accountability of the officers and jail staff responsible for his death.

Press Coverage

Father speaks out after video of autistic son in custody surfaces
WDTN | June 6, 2024

Isaiah Trammell's father speaks out after videos of jail incident surface
Dayton 24/7 Now | June 6, 2024

Attorney Information

With more than 40 years of civil rights and criminal defense trial experience, Friedman, Gilbert + Gerhardstein fights for our clients’ fundamental rights. FG+G attorneys aggressively pursue and expose misconduct by police, jailers, and governments to demand accountability for our clients and to defend those charged in criminal cases.