Lawsuit: Maryland corrections agency failed to prevent fatal 2021 stabbing at Baltimore jail

State officials failed to prevent the 2021 fatal stabbing of a man awaiting trial in a Baltimore jail, according to a federal lawsuit his mother filed Thursday.

Shane Burton, 33, was attacked Aug. 27, 2021 at the state-run Maryland Reception Diagnostic and Classification Center in Baltimore. Burton was held in pretrial detention on armed robbery, assault, drug and gun charges, according to a Baltimore Sun article.

According to the complaint Victoria Ann Burton filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court of Maryland, the stabbing happened after inmates on the upper tier of a two-tiered unit manipulated the locks on their cells in a process known as “popping.” Burton’s mother represents her son’s estate and is also suing on her own behalf.

Six correctional officers were absent from the unit for at least 20 minutes as the inmates left their cells and attacked Burton, the complaint said.

Some detainees stood guard outside Burton’s cell on the unit’s lower tier, while others went inside, covered up the door and assaulted him repeatedly with makeshift knives.

“Following the brutal assault, battery and stabbing of Mr. Burton, many minutes went by before any correctional officer entered the unit and many more minutes transpired before anyone realized that something was amiss,” attorney Arren Waldrep of the D.C. law firm Price Benowitz wrote in the complaint.

Corrections officers also failed to provide timely medical assistance to Burton after they discovered the stabbing, the complaint said. It took some time for an officer to find the right key to Burton’s cell, and after she entered the cell and saw Burton lying wounded on the ground, she reported the assault and waited for backup but didn’t render aid.

Other officers cleared the area of inmates but failed to provide medical aid to Burton during an “extended time,” the complaint said, without providing an exact time. It wasn’t until emergency services personnel arrived that anyone tended to Burton’s injuries.

The suit names the state and the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services as well as specific corrections officials and staff as defendants.

Lowell Melser, a spokesperson for the corrections agency, said DPSCS could not comment on the case because of the pending litigation.

The complaint faulted the state and the agency for not maintaining adequate officer-to-inmate staffing ratios and allowing the problem with the cell door locks to persist. Officials knew of the dangers of understaffing and employing undertrained and underqualified correctional officers, as well as the risks of inmates leaving their cells and creating makeshift weapons, but failed to fix those conditions, the complaint said.

Burton’s rights under the 8th and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution were violated, as well as his rights under the Maryland Declaration of Rights, the complaint said.

Shortly after Burton’s death, his public defender Maureen O’Leary described him in The Sun as a loving father to his daughter.

A few months later, the union representing state corrections employees said staffing shortages were making detention facilities unsafe for both workers and incarcerated people. In January 2022, detainees at the Baltimore jail where Burton died set fires that led to the hospitalization of three inmates and a correctional officer and caused $50,000 worth of damage.

The complaint did not cite a specific figure for the damages it’s seeking but said attorneys are requesting an amount greater than $75,000. Burton’s mother lost earnings and suffered monetary loss, mental anguish and emotional pain and suffering, the complaint said, while Burton’s estate is owed for expenses like funeral costs.