The widow of a man who hanged himself in a Chicago police lockup last month after he was charged in the fatal shooting of a grocery store security guard has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday by Linda Bradford alleges that her 52-year-old husband's death in the Calumet Area lockup on Nov. 17 "is part of a pattern of systemic torture and physical abuse of African-American suspects" at the facility.
The suit also alleges that the city failed to provide a safe environment for prisoners at the lockup and that it violated regulations for holding suspects.
Develt Bradford was found about 1:30 a.m. in a holding cell after apparently using his pajama bottoms to hang himself, police said. The Cook County medical examiner's office ruled his death a suicide.
Police said Bradford, of the 5300 block of South Damen Avenue, was alone in the cell but had been taken out periodically for questioning. A lockup officer last checked on him about 15 minutes before his body was found, police said.
"I'm very sad. I'm very disappointed in the way my son had to go," said Bradford's mother, Annie Bradford, at a news conference on Wednesday. "I just want to know what really happened."
On Wednesday, Bradford's attorneys called on the U.S attorney's office to conduct an independent investigation of the suicide, and a second that occurred within days of Bradford's in the same lockup during the same shift.
"What we want to do is get to the truth," said Bradford's attorney, Sam Adam Jr.
Bradford was charged in the Nov. 10 slaying of security guard Reginald Lanier during a robbery at an Aldi store at 9017 S. Halsted St.
Bradford's neighbor, Michael E. Smith, was also charged in the fatal robbery.
Three days after Bradford's death, a suspect in an unrelated case also hanged himself. Melvin Woods, 62, was found hanging from his underwear in the lockup on Nov. 20, officials said. The medical examiner's office also ruled his death a suicide after an autopsy.
Woods, of the 400 block of West 129th Street in Chicago, was being held on aggravated assault charges following a domestic incident, police said.
Roderick Drew, a spokesman for the city's Law Department, said he could not comment because the city has not yet been served with the lawsuit.
Copyright 2011 - Chicago Tribune
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
