For-profit jail accused of ignoring man’s pleas for help before death

At least 19 times [Sabbie] could be heard saying, ‘I can’t breathe’ — at one point as he crawled, gasping for air, while guards watched him through his cell door.

When Michael Sabbie was booked into jail by the Arkansas police on a misdemeanor assault charge in July 2015, he warned nurses there about his ailments — heart disease, high blood pressure and asthma — and told them he needed medication.

Less than three days later, Sabbie was dead on the floor of his cell. Videos captured his rapidly deteriorating health in the hours before his death as he pleaded with corrections officers for help. At least 19 times he could be heard saying, “I can’t breathe” — at one point as he crawled, gasping for air, while guards watched him through his cell door.

A federal lawsuit filed by his family Wednesday accuses at least 12 corrections officers and nurses at a for- profit jail on the Texas-Arkansas border of causing his death. The lawsuit claims that the employees at the jail, the Bi- State Justice Center in Bowie County, Texas, showed a “deliberate indifference” to his health and ignored obvious signs of his declining condition.

Sabbie was deprived of his medication and was written up for “creating a disturbance” by saying he was ill, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

In addition to the jail staff members, the lawsuit also names the jail’s operator, LaSalle Corrections, which runs jails in Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. Billy McConnell, an owner of LaSalle Corrections, said he could not comment on pending litigation.

Sabbie, 35, was arrested July 19 in Texarkana, Arkansas, on suspicion of verbal assault, a Class C misdemeanor, against his wife.

At a court hearing July 21, several people in the room, including the judge, noticed that Sabbie was sweating, breathing heavily and coughing, according to the suit. The judge asked if he was sick, and Sabbie replied that he had been spitting up blood and needed to go the hospital.

But Sabbie was taken back to the Bi-State Justice Center instead. During his return to his cell, a security camera in a hallway recorded him leaning against a wall to catch his breath. When he appeared to turn back down the hall, guards tackled him to the ground.

He was found dead the next morning.