WMC Action News 5 in Memphis and PWInsider are reporting that Jerry Lawler is filing a wrongful death suit against Hardeman County, Tennessee and specifically Hardeman County Sheriff John Doolen. The lawsuit pertains to the 2018 death of Jerry Lawler’s son Brian. The death was ruled a suicide after he was found hanging in his prison cell. He is alleging that during Brian’s incarceration, he was not given proper treatment for his drug and alcohol issues. It also claims that they, quote, “altogether failed to provide him with appropriate care after he was assaulted by another inmate” on the day of his death.
Lawler says that the only reason he didn’t bail his son out when he got his DUI is that he knew he needed help with his addictions. Jerry Lawler noted that he had explained this to Doolen, who promised he would get Brian treatment. Lawler is also claiming negligence on the part of the officers who were meant to be supervising Brian. He alleges that an officer saw him in the corner with a towel over his head. Only to ignore him to go take out the garbage. Per his statement, only after the officer returned did he go in to check on him. It was at that point that he found that Brian Lawler had hung himself.
Jerry Lawler’s lawsuit goes on to claim that their attempts to cut him down were at first ineffective. The officers were using children’s scissors to try and free him. Lawler argues that if they acted faster and were better prepared, than his son may have been saved.
The lawsuit seeks $3 million in damages.
This goes alongside any compensatory damages that the courts might see fit. They are also trying to enact a court order forcing Hardeman County to enact immediate changes to prevent future suicides. This is, quote, “so that no other family has to go through what this family has had to endure over the past year.”
Jerry Lawler has also shared images of his son, taken in the hospital before his death. He claims the injuries seen in the photos are inconsistent with what one would sustain from this manner of suicide. Thus he wants damages for, quote, “numerous failures of the county and its employees that resulted in the wrongful death of his son.”
