Adrian mom sues prison over inmate son's death

12/11/2002

ADRIAN - The mother of a 25-year-old inmate from Adrian who died while serving a prison sentence is suing the state over the young man's death.

Florence Short alleges in the lawsuit that officers at the Oaks Maximum Correctional Facility in Eastlake, Mich., ignored her son's pleas for help and symptoms of a serious medical disorder for hours before Jonathon Verle Cross was sent to a hospital.

The man died of a heart attack in 2000. Cross was serving sentences for convictions in Lenawee County. He was sentenced in November, 1994, for larceny from a motor vehicle, violation of probation, and attempting to abscond from bond. He was almost six years into the sentences when he died.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court's Western District of Michigan, also alleges that prison officials knew that Cross had a heart condition.