Matt Larimer, May 2026

According to court records, the family of Jakita Brown has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Vigo County Superior Court Division 3, with judge Sarah Mullican overseeing the case.

It appears the family is being represented by Stephen M Wagner, a partner at the Carmel law office of Wagner and Reese, with 30 years of experience in wrongful death and civil rights cases.

The wrongful death suit revolves around claims of negligence while Brown was in custody, and inconsistencies in the statements and reports of public officials regarding her arrest and death.

On March 11th, the Vigo County Sheriff’s Department released a statement claiming that Brown was arrested “in the early morning hours of March 10th” by Indiana State Police on charges of driving while intoxicated.

The statement also indicates that Brown was taken to a local hospital (later identified as Union Hospital’s Regional campus), then brought to the jail at 3:10 AM, and jail staff refused admission on medical grounds.

She was then taken back to the hospital, cleared by a physician, returned to the jail, and was admitted at 4:10 AM. The statement then claims she was “regularly monitored” until jail staff found her unresponsive in her cell at 10 AM.

The family of Jakita Brown has requested police reports and camera footage from the State Police and Sheriff’s Department to confirm the details of the statement, but at this time has not received them.

They have now filed a complaint with the Indiana Public Access Counselor’s office in response to what they believe are the unreasonable delays in receiving these records.

On May 19th, the Vigo County Coroner’s Office issued a press release with some of the details from Brown’s autopsy report. According to the release, forensic pathologist Bamidele Adeagbo found the cause of death to be “acute alcohol withdrawal,” with “hypertensive cardiovascular disease” as a contributing factor.

One detail from the full autopsy report that was not included in the public statement from the coroner’s office was the date of arrest, which was listed as March 9th.

This coincides with statements from local residents who claim that Brown was arrested at the same time as a man named Michael Lewis, who was booked into the jail at 9:50 PM on March 9th. Which, if true, directly contradicts the statement from the Sheriff’s Department.

Adeagbo, the pathologist who performed the autopsy, has also faced local scrutiny, when reports of discrepancies regarding his education and work experience were discovered following his arrest for operating a vehicle while intoxicated in May of 2020.