Family sues after teen’s 2022 death at Georgia detention center

ROME, Ga. (AP) — The family of a 16-year-old girl who died at a Georgia youth detention center are suing over her death, contending she was denied care that would have saved her. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Melanie Hogan Sluder and Ricky Shawn Curtis filed the federal complaint Tuesday. Alexis Sluder had been taken to the Elbert Shaw Regional Youth Detention Center in Dalton after her Aug. 26, 2022, arrest on drug possession and theft charges. While there, the newspaper reports, she suffered a medical emergency from drugs taken earlier in the day. But she wasn’t taken to a hospital and died about seven hours after her arrest. Three guards, the former director and nurse face child cruelty charges. The lawsuit accuses each of violating Sluder’s constitutional rights.