Stanley Wilson of the Detroit Lions poses for his 2007 NFL headshot at photo day in Detroit, Michigan.
The family of Stanley Wilson Jr. said that, before his death on Feb. 1, the 40-year-old ex-NFL player was beaten by Los Angeles County law enforcement officers. The family made the claim in a lawsuit for damages filed Tuesday to the county’s Board of Supervisors.
Wilson was arrested for trespassing in November 2022 and detained at L.A.’s Twin Towers Correctional Facility. The former cornerback was held there because he was deemed too incompetent to stand trial, John C. Carpenter, the family’s attorney, told NBC News. Wilson, who Carpenter said had a history of mental illness, had no known medical issues that would cause sudden death as of Jan. 31, Carpenter said, “yet, 9:30 in the morning the next day, he was dead.”
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Wilson’s family was told different accounts of the circumstances surrounding their son’s death by the county’s coroner investigator, Carpenter said. The first was that he collapsed and died in his cell at Twin Towers, he said. Later, Carpenter said a second report stated that he died in the ambulance on the way to Metropolitan State Hospital, a psychiatric facility. Then the family was told that “he fell out of his chair,” and died as medical providers asked him intake questions, Carpenter said.
The L.A. County Medical Examiner-Coroner did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wilson’s death.
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After playing for Stanford University, Wilson was drafted in the third round of the 2005 NFL draft by the Detroit Lions. He played cornerback for three seasons and had 86 tackles during his NFL career before experiencing a knee injury in 2007 and an Achilles injury during the 2008 preseason.
Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.
