HOUSTON -- The family of an inmate who died in custody filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday morning against Harris County and several guards and deputies.
Kenneth Lucas had been in jail three days on a child custody issue when he died in February of 2014.
He died of a heart attack after an extraction team rushed into his cell and restrained him because they believed he was trying to make a weapon out of a smoke detector.
After an apparent struggle, the video showed Lucas on his stomach saying he couldn't breathe while a guard sat on his folded legs for several minutes.
Lucas asked them to get off of him as he was taken to the jail clinic for a sedative. At some point, he suffered a heart attack and was later pronounced dead at Ben Taub.
"The Department of Justice already inspected Harris County jails and had already determined that they were doing hogtying," said Larry Wilson, the attorney for Lucas' family. "And they had said 'Y'all have got to quit doing this. Someday somebody's gonna die.' And that's exactly what ended up happening here."
The medical examiner ruled Lucas' death a homicide, though a grand jury cleared the guards involved of any criminal charges.
The Harris County attorney's office said Tuesday they just received a copy of the lawsuit this morning and were reviewing it.
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