A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has refused to dismiss a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the family of Stanley Wilson Jr., a former Detroit Lions cornerback who died in county custody in 2023. Wilson, 40, was being transported from Twin Towers Correctional Facility to Metropolitan State Hospital when he arrived at 9:50 a.m. and was pronounced dead just 37 minutes later. His cause of death was determined to be pulmonary thromboembolism, a blood clot in the lungs.
Judge Richard Fruin denied Los Angeles County's motion to throw out the family's fourth amended complaint, according to Courthouse News Service. County attorneys had argued that the Wilsons shifted their legal theory from excessive force during Wilson's restraint on Feb. 1, 2023, to inadequate medical treatment while he was incarcerated. Fruin ruled that the crux of the family's original government claim remained applicable because it concerned county policies and practices for treating mentally ill inmates that allegedly caused Wilson's death.
Wilson's parents filed their wrongful-death lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the Department of State Hospitals and the county itself in September 2023, seeking $45 million, according to the Los Angeles Times. As reported by MyNewsLA.com, the case means Wilson's family may now proceed toward trial on claims that medical negligence caused his death while in custody.
A Court-Ordered Deadline the Family Says Was Missed
A court had ordered Wilson committed to Metropolitan State Hospital no later than Dec. 5, 2022, per Courthouse News. The family claims the county failed to comply with that deadline and denied Wilson the immediate and emergency medical care he required. The fourth amended complaint, filed in October 2025, alleged Wilson died after inadequate medical care following a pulmonary embolism.
County attorneys argued that the complaint changed the operative facts, conduct, actors, duties and injury mechanism from what the family originally claimed. “That is precisely what occurred here,” the county's attorneys said, according to Courthouse News. Wilson family attorneys responded that the change in legal theories was reasonable, arguing the evolving liability theories concerned the county's failure to handle and treat Wilson as an inmate with mental illness in violation of his rights.
A Years-Long Fight Over Video Evidence
The family filed its original government claim against the Sheriff's Department on March 14, 2023, based on limited information available at the time, including public reporting, Patch reports. Wilson's parents said they lacked critical information about the facts and circumstances of his death and had been unable to obtain video footage despite months-long efforts. The family says it finally obtained the requested video after a court order entered on July 9, 2025, according to the Los Angeles Wave Newspaper Group.
Wilson had a history of mental illness and had been deemed incompetent to stand trial, according to his family's attorneys. Accounts of his final arrest differ: Patch reports Wilson was arrested for trespassing in November 2022 and detained at Twin Towers Jail, while The Independent reports he was arrested in August 2022 after allegedly attempting to break into a Hollywood Hills mansion. The dossier does not resolve which account is accurate.
From NFL Cornerback to Jail Mortality Statistics
Before his death, Wilson was known on the football field. Drafted by the Detroit Lions in the third round of the 2005 NFL draft, he played cornerback for three seasons and recorded 86 tackles before a knee injury in 2007 and an Achilles injury during the 2008 preseason interrupted his career.
Wilson's death is part of a larger pattern inside Los Angeles County jails. A UCLA study found that people suffering pulmonary embolisms in county custody were 1,109% more likely to die than people in the general California population after adjusting for age, according to UCLA Newsroom. The same study found death from drug overdose was 50% more likely and death from heart disease was 86% more likely in the jail system than among Californians generally, with mortality and substance-related deaths rising from 2008 through 2023 and peaking during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Los Angeles County Jail reported 46 deaths in 2025, per the study.
The Appeal reported in September 2023 that Wilson was among more than 30 people who had died that year in county detention facilities, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department data cited by The Appeal. Among people who died in the jail system between 2008 and 2023, UCLA researchers found the median time from arrest to death was 57.5 days.
