Man's Family Sues Over Brain Damage In Chicago Jail Cell

CHICAGO, IL — The family of Tyler Lumar has filed a federal lawsuit alleging he was wrongfully detained and neglected in a jail cell. What began as a simple traffic offense in August 2016 led to Lumar hanging himself in the cell. As a result, he suffered brain injuries that left him unable to move or speak.

According to a police report, Lumar, then 22, was angry after a doctor at a West Side clinic allegedly accused him of reselling his prescription drugs. Lumar said the physician refused to refill his cough medicine prescription, according to the report.

"I'm so tired of racism, bro," Lumar says in police car dashcam footage at the time. "That's racial profiling. I don't gangbang, I went to Oak Park and River Forest. I played baseball."

According to the police report, Lumar threatened to "shoot the place up" before police arrived. Officers let him go without charges; however records show the same officers stopped him soon after and arrested him for an overdue $25 payment in a misdemeanor traffic case. Lumar had previously made the payment, but the county failed to remove the warrant.

Less than a day later, Lumar was found hanging in a Harrison District police cell. He suffered debilitating brain injuries and has been on life support since.

Lumar's family told the Chicago Tribune that they want to know why he was kept in jail overnight on a low-level warrant, even though he had enough bail money to get out. Their lawsuit alleges police falsified inspection logs and failed to check on him every 15 minutes in his cell.

Lumar has a young daughter, now 4, with his longtime girlfriend Casey Tecate, 23. She said she had planned to marry Lumar, but now spends a lot of her time with him in a Des Plaines rehabilitation hospital.

"I just feel like they, meaning the police just don't...look at certain people as people." Tecate told the Chicago Tribune. "They weren't looking at him as Tyler Lumar: a dad, a brother, a son."

His hospital bills have racked up more than $2 million, and his family hopes the lawsuit will help pay for his medical care.

The lawsuit names the Cook County sheriff's office and the city, alleging it ignored the common police practice of falsifying jail cell inspection records.

According to court records, city attorneys say the police department and the city did nothing wrong, and that Lumar's attempted suicide was his own "tragic decision."

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