The widow of former Knox County deputy Benjamin Hibbert has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Union County and several law enforcement and medical employees, saying indifference and neglect led to her husband's death from alcohol withdrawal in the Union County Jail last year.
In addition to Union County, defendants include former Sheriff William F. "Billy" Breeding, a Union County Sheriff's Office sergeant, a state trooper, the jail administrator and several corrections officers.
Southern Health Partners, along with the duty physician and nurse, are named as defendants as well. Southern Health Partners is the jail's contracted medical provider.
"Ben Hibbert spent half his life protecting our community," Emily Hibbert wrote in a statement
in her suit filed Sept. 9. "His family is now asking the courts to deliver the accountability that Union County has refused to provide."
The lawsuit says that upon his DUI arrest on Sept. 5, 2025, Hibbert, 52, was "victim to one constitutional failure after another."
On Sept. 5, Hibberts' wife notified law enforcement her husband, a "severe alcoholic," had left home driving a Chevrolet Tahoe after he had been drinking all day.
A state trooper and Union County deputy arrested Hibbert.
Hibberts' wife came to the scene of the arrest, where she said she informed the arresting officers, and later, corrections officers, that her husband had a severe addiction to alcohol, according to the lawsuit.
He was taken to the Union County Jail. By noon the following day, the lawsuit says jail footage shows Hibbert experiencing visible signs of severe alcohol withdrawal, including disorientation, agitation, poor motor skills and unsteadiness on his feet.
Around 2:20 p.m., Hibbert suffered a series of "tonic-clonic seizures," and was found unresponsive more than an hour later by a corrections officer. He was taken to Tennova North Knoxville Medical Center and pronounced dead at 4:30 p.m., according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit says Assistant Medical Examiner Eric Handberg concluded Hibbert died from a seizure “due toEthanol Withdrawal Syndrome due to Chronic Ethanol Use.”
New Union County Sheriff Rick Carter was unable to comment on Hibbert's lawsuit because it is an ongoing case.
The lawsuit says the defendants failed him because:
- The arresting officers withheld critical information about Hibbert's condition from the jail's booking officer.
- The jail's booking officer "feigned" a medical screening and assigned Hibbert to the jail's drunk tank, which is the least observable cell in the jail.
- A corrections officer was warned by Hibbert's wife of her husband's severe alcoholism and potential withdrawal.
- Several corrections officers skipped routine visual cell checks and falsified logs.
- Corrections officers responsible for monitoring a live feed ignored it.
- The nurse waited 19 hours before checking on Hibbert. The physician responsible for the jail was absent and wrote no medical orders for Hibbert.
These factors "all combined to ensure Ben Hibbert's painful, undignified and easily preventable death."
Emily Hibbert is represented by Knoxville attorney Lance Baker. She is seeking $7.5 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages.
"No one deserves to die because they are an alcoholic," the lawsuit says. "Mr. Hibbert should have beensafe in Union County’s custody."
Three Union County corrections officers were fired after an investigation into Hibbert's death by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the suit says.
Problems at the Union County Jail
Two days prior to Hibbert's death, 37-year-old Justin Davis also died in the Union County Jail.
Last month, the Union County jail was forced to send its inmates to other counties when no correctional officers showed up for work one day.
Carter told Knox News inmates had not yet been returned to Union County as the jail conducts cleaning and repairs.
The Union County Jail is almost completely restaffed. An overall staff of 18 people can manage the jail's operations, including a jail administrator and captain, Carter said.
In the past, "complacency was a big issue," Carter said.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Lawsuit: Former Knox County deputy's jail death was 'undignified and easily preventable'
