Three members of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners are urging residents to ask Gov. Brian Kemp to investigate whether Sheriff Patrick Labat should be suspended following allegations that a former inmate at the county jail suffered severe medical neglect that led to the amputation of his legs and several fingers.
According to a report by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Fulton Commission Vice Chair Khadijah Abdur-Rahman, joined by Republican commissioners Bob Ellis and Bridget Thorne, called on May 6 for a state investigation into Labat’s conduct.
The push came after civil rights attorney Ben Crump addressed commissioners and demanded accountability and an independent probe into the treatment of his client, Rashaad Muhammad.
Muhammad told commissioners he repeatedly requested antibiotics while jailed last August because of a medical condition that made him vulnerable to infection. He said his condition worsened until other inmates had to seek help for him. Crump said Muhammad later went into septic shock and a coma before undergoing amputations to save his life.
Muhammad spent 11 days at the Rice Street jail before being transferred Aug. 22 to Grady Hospital, where he remained for months undergoing surgeries. Charges against him, including aggravated assault, were dropped in April.
Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. also called for an investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, though he cautioned against immediately blaming the sheriff for medical care issues.
The AJC reported that the jail remains under scrutiny following a U.S. Department of Justice investigation that found unconstitutional conditions at the facility after the 2022 death of inmate Lashawn Thompson.
