photo by: Courtesy Sarah Harrison via AP

This April 21, 2019, photo provided by Sarah Harrison shows Cedric Lofton of Wichita.

TOPEKA — A panel of U.S. Court of Appeals judges agreed with a lower court that Sedgwick County juvenile detention personnel couldn’t sidestep an excessive-force lawsuit filed against them after a teenager in mental distress was held in a face-down restraint until he suffered cardiac arrest and later died.

In September 2021, Cedric Lofton, 17, became unresponsive while restrained by five officers at the Juvenile Intake and Assessment Center. He had been placed in a prone position, or face down, on a holding cell floor for nearly 40 minutes with officers’ weight applied to his back. Lofton was resuscitated after an officer noticed he wasn’t breathing. He never regained consciousness and died two days later at a hospital, the court record says.

Court of Appeals Judges Richard Federico, Carolyn McHugh and Allison Eid of the 10th Circuit affirmed the district court ruling declaring the corrections officers weren’t entitled to qualified immunity or summary judgment in the suit filed by Lofton’s estate.

“A reasonable officer would have been on notice that continued application of pressure after Mr. Lofton was subdued created a serious risk of asphyxiation and death, even if he was still verbalizing threats,” the three-judge panel said in a decision released Monday. “Under those circumstances, it is clearly established that a continued prone restraint is unconstitutional.”

Before the involvement of Wichita law enforcement officers, the court record says, Lofton was taken by a foster parent to a clinic for a mental health evaluation. Lofton ran away from the facility but later returned home. On advice of the Kansas Department for Children and Families, the court record says, foster parent Tanea Randolph called Wichita police.

Wichita police officers said Lofton was hallucinating, and the decision was made to transport him to St. Joseph’s Hospital for involuntary hospitalization. A struggle ensued outside the foster home, and Lofton was arrested for battery of an officer.

Lofton was taken to the Juvenile Intake and Assessment Center, where he engaged in physical altercations with corrections officers. In view of surveillance cameras, five Sedgwick County juvenile officers held the 135-pound Lofton in a prone position for nearly 40 minutes until he suffered a heart attack. He was revived by officers before being transported to Wesley Medical Center, where he subsequently died.

An autopsy indicated the death — ruled a homicide — was associated with complications of cardiopulmonary arrest amid a physical struggle and while held in a prone position, court documents said.

Lofton’s brother, Marquan Teetz, filed a federal lawsuit in 2022 alleging personnel at the juvenile facility engaged in excessive force. Attorneys for the officers sought dismissal of their clients from the case based on the premise the officers were shielded from liability for constitutional acts.

Eric Melgren, chief judge of the U.S. District Court of Kansas and an appointee of President George W. Bush, denied the motion and concluded surveillance footage could support Teetz’s claim that excessive force was sustained after Lofton stopped resisting. The judge said a jury ought to decide whether officers conducted themselves within constitutional boundaries or relied on unconstitutional force.

On appeal, lawyers for the officers asked the U.S. Court of Appeals to reverse the district court judge. Defense counsel Jeffrey Kuhlman argued Lofton wouldn’t have died if he hadn’t resisted commands of officers in a manner that resulted in exposure to “an air deficit.”

Inside the juvenile facility, Lofton allegedly punched a corrections officer in the face and held another in a chokehold before being restrained by defendants Jason Stepien, Brenton Newby, Karen Conklin, William Buckner and Benito Mendoza. Conklin performed CPR on Lofton before his transfer to a hospital.

The three-judge panel said it was reasonable to conclude there were circumstances in which application of pressure to a subdued person’s back while in a prone position on a solid surface was excessive.

“This may include situations where the suspect continues to resist to some degree, physically or verbally, but no longer poses a risk of serious harm or injury due to the restraints,” the panel said.

McHugh, an appointee of President Barack Obama, wrote in the opinion that the district court calculated Lofton was not “meaningfully resisting” correction officers for at least 12 minutes while held in the prone restraint.

“Defendants had sufficient control over him,” she wrote. “At that point, a reasonable officer would have perceived the threat had passed and that the use of deadly force was no longer reasonable. Instead, five officers continued to subject Mr. Lofton to a prone restraint while his legs were restrained and he appeared not to move for prolonged periods.”

McHugh added: “We therefore conclude defendants violated Mr. Lofton’s Fourth Amendment rights not just by using excessive force, but by using deadly force well past the point a reasonable officer would have perceived any serious threat to his physical safety had passed.”

During the episode at the juvenile detention facility in Wichita, Lofton was in temporary custody of the facility. The Wichita Police Department retained legal custody of the teenager. Lofton apparently went into cardiac arrest while juvenile officers were attempting to contact Wichita police to request they retrieve him.

In addition to the five corrections officers, defendants in the lawsuit include the Sedgwick County Commission and the city of Wichita.

In 2022, Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett declined to file criminal charges in the Lofton case. He said corrections officers acted in self defense and that “these folks are protected by Kansas law.”

— Tim Carpenter reports for Kansas Reflector.