Lawsuit filed over teen’s 2022 in-custody death at Georgia detention center

The parents of a 16-year-old girl who died while in custody at a northwest Georgia youth detention center in 2022 have filed a federal lawsuit alleging she was denied lifesaving care.

Melanie Hogan Sluder and Ricky Shawn Curtis filed the complaint Tuesday in the Northern District of Georgia’s Rome Division seeking unspecified damages and a jury trial over their daughter’s August 2022 death.

Learn more about the lawsuit from David Aaro's coverage of the press conference in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.