Glenn Foster Jr. Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Pickens County

The wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Glenn Foster Jr., the former New Orleans Saints defensive end who died in Pickens County, Alabama custody in December 2021, is moving forward in federal court. On December 5, 2024, U.S. District Judge Annemarie Carney Axon allowed the family’s core excessive force and failure-to-intervene claims to proceed against the Pickens County sheriff, a jail administrator, a deputy, and corrections staff, while dismissing other defendants and claims.¹

How Foster Ended Up in Custody

Foster was arrested the night of December 3, 2021, after a high-speed chase through Reform, Alabama, and booked into the Pickens County Jail on charges of reckless endangerment, resisting arrest, and attempting to elude police.² He had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and his family said they believed he was in a manic episode at the time. EMS at the scene recommended a full medical or mental health evaluation, but officers took him to jail instead.³

At an initial appearance, Pickens County District Judge Samuel Junkin found Foster “not mentally stable and a danger to himself and others” and ordered him held without bond for a mental health evaluation at the Taylor Hardin Secure Medical Facility in Tuscaloosa.² On December 6, officers began transporting him. When the vehicle reached Northport Medical Center, Foster was slumped over, discolored, and foaming at the mouth. He was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later.³

What the Lawsuit Alleges

Foster’s widow, Anny Pamela Foster, filed the federal complaint on December 5, 2023, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Western Division, as Anny Pamela Foster v. Pickens County, et al., Case No. 7:23-cv-01647-ACA.⁴

The complaint describes sustained brutality over multiple days. During the arrest, deputies allegedly wrestled Foster to the ground and slammed his head into concrete. Inside the jail, officers allegedly stripped him naked, strapped him to a restraint chair, tased him repeatedly, and choked him to unconsciousness. The suit characterizes this treatment as torture lasting more than 24 hours.⁵

The family also alleges that after they negotiated a conditional bond with the Reform police chief, the sheriff’s office refused to release Foster and rebooked him on new charges stemming from an alleged altercation with another inmate.³ It further claims officers ignored medical staff who said Foster needed care, and that during the December 6 transport they forcibly shoved him into the vehicle and used a chokehold that contributed to his death.⁴ According to the family, Pickens County officials later told them the body camera footage of the arrest was lost and Foster’s personal belongings had been destroyed.⁶

Who Was Sued

The complaint named Pickens County, the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office, and the Pickens County Jail as defendants, along with Sheriff Todd Hall, Chief Deputy Greg Carr, Lieutenant Drew Wilburn, Jail Administrator Justin White, Deputy Mickey Young, and corrections officers LaDon Hill, DeMarco Easterwood, Willie Brown, and a Mr. Richardson.⁷ The family is represented by civil rights attorney Ben Crump together with Ken Abbarno and Diandra “Fu” Debrosse of DiCello Levitt.⁴

What the Judge Allowed and Dismissed

Judge Axon’s December 2024 ruling split the case. She denied the motion to dismiss excessive force claims against Jail Administrator Justin White, Deputy Mickey Young, and corrections officer LaDon Hill, finding that the allegations of gratuitous force against a restrained and incapacitated person violated clearly established constitutional law. She also allowed failure-to-intervene claims regarding the December 6 transport to proceed against Sheriff Hall, Lieutenant Wilburn, Deputy Young, and the correctional officer defendants.¹

At the same time, the judge dismissed excessive force claims against Sheriff Hall, Chief Deputy Carr, Lieutenant Wilburn, and officers Brown, Easterwood, and Richardson for insufficient allegations of personal involvement. Carr was dismissed from the lawsuit entirely.⁸ The wrongful death count under Alabama state law was dismissed after the family’s attorneys did not defend it in their response brief, and a tort-of-outrage claim was also dismissed. The ruling permits the family to pursue alternative theories of what killed Foster, including both the tasing on December 5 and the alleged strangulation during the December 6 transport.¹

Competing Autopsies and No Criminal Charges

Cause of death is contested. A state autopsy released in 2022 attributed Foster’s death to natural causes linked to hypertensive cardiovascular disease.⁹ An independent autopsy by Dr. Michael Baden, former chief medical examiner of New York City, found evidence of neck compressions and strangulation and concluded Foster did not die naturally.¹⁰ Foster’s father called the state autopsy’s conclusion “a pack of lies.”¹¹

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s State Bureau of Investigation looked into the death, and a grand jury heard evidence but returned no indictments.⁹ No law enforcement officer or jail staff member has faced criminal charges in connection with Foster’s death. The civil suit is the family’s remaining avenue for accountability.

Related Cases and Context

In a separate action, the family sued the Jacob Schoen and Son Funeral Home and funeral director John Appel Jr. in Orleans Parish Civil District Court on December 8, 2022. The family had planned to have Foster’s brain tested for chronic traumatic encephalopathy given his football career and mental health history, and the complaint alleges the funeral home destroyed the brain without consent, making testing impossible, and failed to properly embalm and care for his remains.¹²¹³ That case is distinct from the federal wrongful death action against Pickens County.

Foster’s death was not the only one at the Pickens County Jail during that period. Another inmate died in August 2021, and 44-year-old Samual Byrd died in the jail on April 3, 2022, making Byrd the third person to die at the facility in less than a year.¹⁴ Justin White, the jail administrator named as a defendant in Foster’s suit, left Pickens County in 2022 for the Walker County Sheriff’s Office. Inmate Tony Mitchell later died in Walker County in January 2023 while White served there, and Mitchell’s family filed a separate federal suit accusing White of lying to state investigators and contributing to the denial of medical care. White has not been criminally charged in either death.¹⁵

Where the Case Stands

With the motion to dismiss largely denied as to the central excessive force and failure-to-intervene claims, the federal lawsuit is proceeding against Sheriff Todd Hall, Lieutenant Drew Wilburn, Jail Administrator Justin White, Deputy Mickey Young, and corrections officers including LaDon Hill. Attorney Ben Crump said the legal team “will not rest until we get answers and justice for Glenn Foster Jr. and his distraught family.”⁵ The family has also called on the Department of Justice to open a pattern-or-practice investigation into the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office.⁶

1
DiCello Levitt. Foster v. Pickens County Memorandum Opinion and Order
2
CBS News. Glenn Foster Jr. Dies in Custody After Arrest in Alabama
3
Ben Crump Law. Attorney Ben Crump Files Civil Lawsuit on Behalf of Family of Ex-NFL Player Glenn Foster Jr.
4
DiCello Levitt. Wrongful Death Case of Former NFL Player Glenn Foster Jr. Can Move Forward
5
NOLA.com. Lawsuit Says Saints Player Glenn Foster Was Tortured in Jail
6
WWNO. Glenn Foster Jr.’s Family Use Super Bowl to Bring Awareness to His Death, Demand Justice
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WWLTV. Foster v. Pickens County Complaint
8
WBRC. Federal Judge Rules Wrongful Death Lawsuit Can Move Forward
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ESPN. Ex-Saints Glenn Foster Jr. Family Sues Police for Wrongful Death
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NBC News. Autopsy of Former NFL Player Glenn Foster Suggests Evidence of Strangulation
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Fight Back News. Family of Glenn Foster Jr. Demands Justice Ahead of Super Bowl LIX
12
Fox 8 Live. Funeral Home Mishandled Former Saints Player’s Brain After Death in Police Custody, Lawsuit Claims
13
AL.com. Funeral Home Mutilated and Unlawfully Disposed of Ex-Saint Glenn Foster Jr.’s Body, Lawsuit Alleges
14
WCBI. Investigation Underway After Inmate Died in Pickens County Jail
15
WBRC. Same Jail Administrator in Place When Inmates Died in Two Counties