Thompson-Miller Settlement: $4M Fulton County Jail Death and Reforms

The family of LaShawn Thompson reached a $4 million settlement with Fulton County on August 2, 2023, roughly eleven months after the 35-year-old died in a bed bug-infested cell in the psychiatric wing of the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta. The Board of Commissioners approved the payment 6-0 in a closed-door executive session.¹ The agreement released the county, the sheriff’s office, and current and former employees from all claims, and it did not require any specific operational changes at the jail.²

How Thompson Died in the Fulton County Jail

Thompson was arrested on June 12, 2022, on a misdemeanor simple battery charge and held on $2,500 bail.³ He had schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, and the jail moved him to its psychiatric wing because of those conditions.⁴ He was found dead in that cell on September 13, 2022.

His body was covered in bed bug bites and lice. Insects were biting him in his eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and across his body.⁵ Attorneys for the family later described the cell as a “torture chamber” that was “not fit for a diseased animal.” The jail was dealing with an outbreak of bed bugs, lice, and other vermin at the time, and the sheriff’s office would later spend $500,000 in emergency funds to address the infestations and begin transferring more than 600 inmates out of the facility because of overcrowding.⁴

What the Independent Autopsy Found

The Fulton County Medical Examiner initially listed Thompson’s cause and manner of death as “undetermined,” though the official report noted a severe bed bug infestation.⁶

An independent autopsy told a different story. Commissioned by the family and funded by Colin Kaepernick’s Autopsy Initiative, the review was performed by Dr. Roger A. Mitchell Jr., chair of pathology at Howard University College of Medicine. He concluded Thompson died of “complications due to severe neglect” and classified the death as a homicide.⁵ The specific cause was a fatal cardiac arrhythmia resulting from dehydration, rapid weight loss, and malnutrition, complicated by untreated decompensated schizophrenia.⁴

Thompson weighed 180 pounds when booked in June and 148 pounds at autopsy in September, a loss of 32 pounds.⁶ Toxicology testing showed no trace of his prescribed schizophrenia medication, and medical records indicated he had not received a dose in at least 32 days.⁵ The reviewers identified a 43-day gap with minimal documentation of any care.⁴ Dr. Mitchell concluded that with adequate treatment, Thompson would not have died when he did.

What the $4 Million Settlement Covered

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump and Michael Harper of The Harper Law Firm represented the family.⁷ The $4 million approved by the Board of Commissioners went to the family in exchange for a release of all claims against the county, the sheriff’s office, and current and former employees.² The attorneys said additional settlements were reached with “unidentified entities,” though those amounts were not disclosed.⁸

The agreement obligated the county to pay, nothing more. It did not require new policies, staffing changes, pest-control protocols, or medical-care standards at the jail.² In a joint statement, Crump and Harper said the family was “satisfied to reach settlements in these matters” but “nowhere near the end of this journey to full justice,” pledging to continue working to “demand and motivate significant change” in Thompson’s name.⁷

Who Was Held Accountable

Fulton County Sheriff Patrick “Pat” Labat acknowledged that “a number of failures” led to Thompson’s death and described the jail as being in a “state of crisis.”¹ He requested and received the resignations of the Chief Jailer and two Assistant Chief Jailers, and in April 2023 made what was described as “wholesale changes” to his leadership team.⁹

No criminal charges have been filed against any jail staff or officials in connection with Thompson’s death. The Atlanta Police Department and the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office conducted investigations, with findings to be turned over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, but no charges have resulted.¹⁰ The NAACP Georgia chapter and the family’s attorneys had publicly called for criminal negligence charges.⁴

What Changed at the Jail After the Settlement

Because the settlement itself required no reforms, pressure for change came from a separate track. The U.S. Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation into the Fulton County Jail in July 2023.¹ After 16 months, the DOJ released a 105-page report in November 2024 finding that the facility subjected inmates to “inhumane, violent and hazardous conditions” that violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The report documented flooded housing units, roach and rodent infestations, exposed wiring, inadequate food, and insufficient medical and mental health care. In 2023 alone, the facility recorded more than 1,000 assaults and over 300 stabbings among inmates.¹¹

In January 2025, the DOJ and Fulton County reached a proposed consent decree, subject to federal court approval. It requires the county to develop plans to protect incarcerated people from violence, improve supervision and staffing, provide adequate medical and mental health care, implement comprehensive pest management, restrict isolation for vulnerable individuals, and facilitate special education services for children with disabilities. An independent monitor was appointed to assess compliance and issue public progress reports every six months.¹²

Compliance has been uneven. In an August 2025 report, lead federal monitor Kathleen Kenney warned that “severe understaffing creates serious safety risks for residents and staff and will obstruct compliance” with the consent decree, noting that the Rice Street Jail often had just one sheriff’s deputy overseeing 200 incarcerated people, with vacant security towers and broken infrastructure.¹³ A pipe burst in January 2026 caused an estimated 70,000-gallon flood, and a fire broke out in the laundry room the following month. The Georgia chapter of the ACLU reported that inmate populations had continued to rise and deaths at the facility were continuing.¹⁴ In April 2026, a former inmate named Rashaad Muhammad, also represented by Ben Crump, alleged medical neglect at the jail led to sepsis and the amputation of his fingers and lower legs; the Georgia Bureau of Investigation opened a preliminary review.¹⁵

1
ABC News. $4M Settlement Reached With Family of Man Who Died in Bed Bug-Infested Jail Cell
2
Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Fulton Settlement in Inmate’s Death Includes Money but No Changes at Jail
3
Fox 5 Atlanta. Fulton County LaShawn Thompson Bedbug Settlement
4
CNN. LaShawn Thompson Atlanta Inmate Death Independent Medical Review
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Capital B Atlanta. LaShawn Thompson Independent Autopsy
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CBS News. Independent Autopsy Severe Neglect LaShawn Thompson Death Bedbug Infested Jail Cell
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Ben Crump Law. Attorneys Ben Crump and Michael D. Harper Issue Joint Statement Following Settlements in LaShawn Thompson Bed Bug Case
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WABE. Family of Man Who Died in Bedbug-Infested Cell in Georgia Jail Reaches Settlement With County
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Fox 5 Atlanta. Fulton County Sheriff Goes One on One With Fox 5 About Recent Misconduct
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Fox 5 Atlanta. LaShawn Thompson Autopsy Report Results Fulton County Jail Death
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CNN. Fulton County Jail Georgia DOJ Investigation
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U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Georgia. United States Reaches Proposed Consent Decree to Resolve Claims of Conditions Inside Fulton County Jail
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Civic Atlanta. Fulton Jail Monitor Report
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Atlanta News First. Significant Progress: Fulton County Gives Update on Jail Improvements
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CBS News Atlanta. GBI Investigation Rashaad Muhammad Claims Medical Neglect Fulton County Jail