Debbie Denise Loggins
Debbie Loggins was a woman whose daughter, Alice Loggins Hill, brought a lawsuit over her death as administrator of her estate. Carroll County deputies restrained her after responding to a fight call in the early morning of September 17, 2005, hogtied her and placed her facedown in a patrol car. The lawsuit says that during the drive to the jail she became quiet and may have stopped breathing, and that the driver did not realize it; she was pronounced dead at a hospital. The official autopsy by Dr. Steven Hayne attributed her death to advanced heatstroke and ruled it an accident, and the expert Dr. Werner Spitz later attributed it to positional asphyxia, while a federal court dismissed the estate's claims.
Cause of death, as reported: Died of illness (disputed). The pathologist Dr. Steven Hayne attributed her death to advanced heatstroke and ruled it an accident, while her estate's lawsuit and expert Dr. Werner Spitz say deputies' face-down hogtying in a patrol car caused positional asphyxia.
Reported by: Dr. Steven Hayne, pathologist who conducted the autopsy (medical examiner or coroner); Dr. Werner Spitz, plaintiff's expert (family or their lawyers); Alice Loggins Hill, administrator of her estate, in the lawsuit (family or their lawyers); federal court.
Lawsuit: Her estate sued Carroll County and its deputies in federal court, and the court dismissed the suit on summary judgment, a ruling the Fifth Circuit affirmed.