Jasmine Anderson was in a psychiatric facility in Bunkie when arrested in 2019 on an Alexandria Police Department warrant for the death of her young daughter.
Just days later, Anderson was dead, too, after hanging herself in her cell in the downtown Alexandria Rapides Parish Detention Center #1.
Her parents, Grant Parish residents Philip and Melanie Anderson, have sued the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office over their daughter's death. The lawsuit filed last summer alleges that Jasmine received "substandard care" from the sheriff's office and providers contracted to give medical care to inmates.
The lawsuit names Sheriff Mark Wood and the unidentified medical provider for the sheriff's office. Wood replaced William Earl Hilton, who was sheriff at the time of Anderson's arrest and death,less than a year ago.
The sheriff's office had no comment on Wednesday, citing pending litigation. The attorney for the parents, Chad Guillot, said he had no comment at this time.
Guillot also represented Jasmine Anderson in her criminal case.
The story made international headlines, partly because of how 5-year-old Audrey Lynn Chelette died but also because her death cast new suspicions for some on the deaths of her 4-year-old brother months earlier and the children's father in 2016.
The boy, Christopher "CJ" Dawayne Chelette Jr., died in April 2019, after choking on the plastic cap to a soda bottle, while father Christopher "Critter" Dawayne Chelette died in February 2016.
Police said at the time they would look again at those deaths, and a spokesman said Monday that was done but no further action was warranted.
Anderson had brought Audrey to an emergency room on July 17, 2019, with a neck injury. She said the girl, who already was dead, had been injured in a wreck.
But police said the injury didn't match Anderson's description, and officers weren't able to pinpoint the location where she said it had happened until the next day.
She was arrested on a second-degree murder warrant on July 23, 2019, retrieved from the Bunkie facility and initially booked into the Avoyelles Parish Detention Center. She was brought to Alexandria Police headquarters to be questioned and, according to the lawsuit, tried to kill herself while there.
When she was booked into the downtown Alexandria jail, she was put on suicide watch.
The lawsuit claims she was removed from suicide watch on or about the next dayand killed herself "using an object given to her by an employee of the Rapides Parish sheriff."
Hilton gave details at the time, telling The Town Talk thatshe hung herself with a sheet, the act seen on a surveillance camera two minutes after deputies had checked on her.
She was taken to Rapides Regional Trauma Center, breathing on her own, according to the sheriff's office. But reports soon surfaced that she was brain dead.
Guillothad sought a sanity commission to evaluate Anderson, but she died before being examined by any doctors. After her death, he issued a subpoena in an effort to reveal the circ*mstances ofhow his client died.
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He also issued a statement about how many pre-trial detainees have mental-health issues, and what he saw as a lack of proper care for them.
"There are no services to assist them; they are simply put in jail and, sometimes, as in Jasmine’s case, are not adequately protected from themselves," it read. "Our judicial system and law enforcement have to do better than this."
The sheriff's office has replied to the lawsuit, denying that any deputy knew that Anderson had "suicidal or self-harm tendencies ... after she was taken off of suicide watch at the instruction of the medical staff."
The response admits that medical staff directed Anderson to be taken off suicide watch, but it states those staff members are not employees of the sheriff's office. It also denies that proper procedures weren't followed.
The answer repeats the claim that Anderson was removed from suicide watch not by anyone with the sheriff's office, but by medical staff. That staff consists of nurses employed by a third-party company.
"It is admitted that on or about July 24, 2019, Anderson was discovered with material around her neck which is believed to have been a sheet that she was provided by a deputy for the sheriff after the medical staff instructed that Anderson should be taken off suicide watch," it reads.
Because of that, the sheriff's office believes it should not be held liable. Anderson's death and other allegations of her parents "were caused solely by the negligence and fault of third-parties for whom the sheriff is not responsible or answerable in damages," it reads.
No court dates have been set in the case, according to online Rapides Parish Clerk of Court records.
A lawsuit represents one side of a legal argument.
