Timeline: Stephen Fossett's death at Bibb County Jail and the lawsuits
More than two years after Stephen Fossett died inside the Bibb County Jail, his family is still searching for accountability. Two lawsuits filed this month allege that systemic failures, excessive force and medical malpractice led to his death.
Here’s how the case has unfolded.
May 25, 2024: Fossett dies in custody
Fossett, 42, died at the Bibb County Jail after a violent struggle with deputies who reportedly stunned him with a Taser and applied body weight to restrain him. He had been booked on indecent exposure and criminal trespassing charges earlier in May.
According to the case report later released by the district attorney, Fossett drank an unknown substance from a Styrofoam cup and smoked a handmade cigarette believed to contain synthetic marijuana, also known as K2 or MDMB-4en-PINACA. He began stumbling and went into a shower, where he slid to the floor.
A deputy noticed him on surveillance video and called for medical help. After nurses brought a gurney and moved him to the infirmary, a nurse attempted to administer Narcan. Fossett resisted, broke free and fled. Deputies pursued him into a locker room, where they stunned him repeatedly while trying to apply handcuffs. Fossett was eventually restrained, strapped to a gurney and wheeled back to the infirmary, where a deputy noticed he had stopped breathing. He was pronounced dead at Atrium Health Navicent Medical Center at 2:32 p.m.
His medical intake records indicated he was schizophrenic and “was not compliant with his medication at the time,” the report said.
August 2024: Family demands answers
About three months after Fossett’s death, his family gathered in front of the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office alongside civil rights attorneys Mawuli Davis and Nathan Fitzpatrick. They told reporters they still had not received crucial evidence in the case — no medical records, no body camera footage, and no access to the medical staff and supervisors present during the incident.
Fossett was the eighth inmate to die at the Bibb County Jail since 2020, according to records provided by the sheriff’s office. His mother, Paula Platt, said her son suffered from chronic schizophrenia and had participated in a county mental health program. Jail staff, she said, should have been familiar with his illness.
“ (People with disabilities) should not be criminalized, they should not be brutalized and they absolutely should not die,” Davis said.
October 2024: Death ruled a homicide; GBI investigates
A Georgia Bureau of Investigation medical examiner ruled Fossett’s death a homicide. District Attorney Anita R. Howard and Sheriff David Davis asked the GBI to investigate the death further.
On Oct. 22, the family held a candlelight vigil and rally outside the jail. Supporters traveled from Atlanta to attend. The group sang “This Little Light of Mine” as they walked to the front of the building.
“My brother did not deserve to die,” Fossett’s sister, Tiffany Fossett, said. “My brother had a trespassing charge. You can go into a store and get a trespassing charge … that is not a death sentence.”
January 2025: Attorneys call footage ‘barbaric’
On what would have been Fossett’s 43rd birthday, his family’s attorneys said Howard, the Bibb County district attorney, had invited them to view video of his final moments. They described what they saw as “barbaric.”
Howard told the attorneys the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office had not informed her of Fossett’s death — she learned about it through the media, four or five months after it happened, Fitzpatrick, one of the family’s attorneys, said.
Davis described deputies pouncing on Fossett, putting their full body weight on him while deploying a Taser and “cussing him, calling him all kinds of names.” After he was restrained, Davis said, the staff turned away. Nurses never checked his pulse or vitals, he claimed.
“It’s just an absolute barbaric scene,” Davis said.
February 2025: Autopsy details emerge
Sheriff David Davis told The Telegraph that conclusions about the video had to be drawn “in the context of what was happening.” He said the video would not be released to the public at that time, but “at some point, yes, it’ll be out.”
The autopsy report obtained by The Telegraph through the Georgia Open Records Act showed Fossett was under the influence of synthetic marijuana when he died. The autopsy determined his death was a homicide, with the drug, the restraint and the deployment of a Taser all contributing. Fossett’s schizophrenia, pulmonary emphysema and a bridged left anterior descending coronary artery also contributed.
April 9, 2025: No criminal charges
Howard ruled that the force used that Bibb County deputies used against Fossett was justified, and that involved deputies Cpl. Cynthia Flournoy and Cpl. Curtis Wilson would not face criminal charges.
“After careful review of all available evidence, we have concluded that the force used by officers was reasonable under the circumstances and did not violate Georgia law governing the use of force by peace officers,” Howard said.
Despite multiple trigger pulls, Howard’s office said, the combined effective Taser deployment time was 13.24 seconds, which is within the 15-second threshold recommended in training.
April 10, 2025: ‘Trash’ evidence, family says
Howard released an 11-page analysis detailing her decision. The Fossett family’s attorneys said the evidence Howard’s office received was “trash” and pointed to a lack of transparency from the sheriff’s office.
April 21, 2025: Bodycam video released
The Bibb County Sheriff’s Office released roughly 10 minutes of bodycam footage to The Telegraph under open records law. The video showed deputies finding Fossett in a locker room after he fled a nurse trying to administer Narcan, stunning him with a Taser, yelling at him and struggling to handcuff him before strapping him to a gurney.
Fitzpatrick, the family’s attorney, said the release still did not represent full transparency.
“While we are aware that some footage concerning Mr. Fossett has been released to certain media organizations, the full unedited footage that the Fossett family and its legal team have requested repeatedly has to this day not been released,” he said. “Our requests for transparency from the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office are still unanswered and we will not be satisfied by the spoon feeding of pieces of footage at their discretion to the media.”
May 2026: Two lawsuits filed
This month, Davis, Fitzpatrick and attorney Harold Spence filed two lawsuits on behalf of the Fossett family.
A federal lawsuit accuses Sheriff David Davis and Bibb County Sheriff’s Office officials and deputies of excessive force, failing to intervene and wrongful death. It also alleges violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, citing Fossett’s schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
A second lawsuit filed in state court targets CorrectHealth Bibb, LLC and medical personnel, alleging medical malpractice and systemic failures in intake screening, psychiatric care and emergency response.
The lawsuits allege Fossett was stunned for more than 50 seconds, according to an Axon forensic analysis — far longer than the roughly 13 seconds Howard cited. Mawuli Davis said the new filings claim deputies can be seen giving each other “high-fives” after handcuffing Fossett.
“My son Stephen was a human being,” Platt, Fossett’s mother, said. “He was loved. He struggled with mental illness, but he deserved compassion, treatment, dignity, and to come home alive.”
The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by Telegraph journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by Telegraph journalists.