Civil Rights Litigation

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit accusing Bristol, Tennessee, police officers and paramedics of using excessive force and denying medical care to 23‑year‑old Austin Hunter Turner while he was having a seizure in 2017, ruling that the statute of limitations had expired before his mother filed suit in 2024. The judge sided with the city and first responders, who argued that because Turner’s mother, Karen Goodwin, witnessed officers using force during the incident, she had one year from that day under Tennessee law to bring her claims. Goodwin’s attorneys contend that an official autopsy blaming "multiple drug toxicity" and the absence of body‑camera footage in the record effectively concealed restraint‑induced asphyxia as the true cause, and say they did not learn this until AP reporters surfaced body‑cam video in 2023 and a forensic pathologist reviewed it; they plan to appeal, arguing families should get more time when they reasonably could not discover the real cause of death. The lawsuit says the video contradicts police accounts, showing Turner face‑down, handcuffed, shackled, with a spit sock over his head while officers and paramedics put significant pressure on his head and upper back, even though he was in the midst of a seizure and not punching or kicking. The case, one of more than 1,000 deaths identified by an Associated Press‑led investigation that followed use of force supposedly designed to be non‑lethal, underscores how delayed access to body‑camera footage and disputed autopsy findings can determine whether families ever get a hearing on the merits in federal court.