Atlanta family files suit in Taser death

By Vince Mancini

Published on September 21, 2005

Attorneys representing the family of Ray Charles Austin, 24, filed the wrongful death suit this week in U.S. District Court in Atlanta. Attorneys for Frederick Williams, an inmate who was killed during a similar incident eight months after Austin, say they also plan to file a suit.

The suit claims that Austin was shocked eight times with a Taser. The sheriff's department had stated he had been shocked "at least three times" in their initial statement regarding the Sept. 26, 2003 incident.

Sheriff Butch Conway, three of his deputies allegedly involved in the altercation, and Prison Health Services, a Nashville-based company that provides medical services for the jail are named in the suit.

Attorneys for Austin's family allege that the man would not have died if deputies and a jail nurse had not forced him to take medication, shocked him eight times, beat and choked him.

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