'Severely Autistic Teen Died After Deputies Sat On Him', Parents File Lawsuit

The New Orleans parents of a severely autistic teen boy have filed a federal lawsuit Thursday, claiming that their son’s death last year was caused by deputies who sat on him during an arrest.

The lawsuit stems from an incident that happened on Jan. 19, 2020, when the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office (JPSO) responded to a report of an assault by an autistic teenager against his father.

The family sued the Sheriff’s office, saying that the seven deputies who restrained him while taking him into custody were responsible for the death of their 16-year-old son Eric Parsa.

The Sheriff's office said the lawsuit is “rife with false claims and malicious accusations,” reported local news outlet The New Orleans Advocate.

As the family was returning from an outing on the day of the incident, Parsa experienced a sudden sensory outburst or “meltdown,” the lawsuit says. The suit says the meltdown, often described as a “storm in the brain,” is common among people suffering from severe autism, and manifests in self-injurious or aggressive behavior toward others.

The video released by the parents shows Parsa slapping at himself repeatedly and grabbing at his father outside a parking lot as they were trying to return home.

The two of them struggled for around four minutes before Chad Pitfield, an off-duty police officer, arrived at the scene. Parsa then started hitting himself, his father and the officer, who then threw the teen to the ground.

Pitfield then tried to restrain Parsa by sitting on his lower torso and rear end. As Parsa struggled to surrender while Pitfield was trying to handcuff, the other deputies joined him.

“Eventually, there were a total of seven JPSO deputies involved, sitting on, handcuffing, shackling, holding down or standing by (Eric Parsa) as he was restrained and held face down on his stomach against the hard surface of the parking lot,” the lawsuit says.

The family alleges that Parsa was held down in prone position for nine minutes and six seconds without any attempt from the deputies to bring him back to a recovery position.

“It wasn’t until his body had gone limp, and he had urinated on himself that the deputies rolled him into a "recovery position." By then, it was too late,” the lawsuit says.

The family accuses the deputies of using excessive force, body weight, choke and neck hold, and restraints on the developmentally disabled teen. They claim that the deputies did not take any measures to make sure the teen could breathe.

They are seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages in the lawsuit.

The autopsy report listed morbid obesity, an enlarged heart and the prone positioning as contributing factors to his death. However, the coroner’s office classified the teen’s death as “accidental” caused by “excited delirium.”

“While the Sheriff's Office remains deeply saddened over this unfortunate loss of life, it does not intend to allow Jefferson Parish Sheriff's deputies to be maligned and slandered by those seeking to profit from this unfortunate situation,” Jefferson Parish sheriff’s office said in a statement.