FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — A former Franklin County Detention Center guard is speaking out for the first time about the 2019 death of 21-year-old Dylan Stratton, saying he believes Stratton's death was preventable.
DeAndre Johnson, who worked as a deputy jailer at the time, says he found Stratton unresponsive in his cell and performed CPR alongside a Frankfort police officer until medics arrived
Johnson says he raised concerns multiple times, to supervisors up the chain of command, that Stratton and a friend needed emergency medical attention days before Stratton died.
"I had concerns. I had said multiple times him and his friend needed to go to the emergency room," Johnson said.
He says those concerns went unaddressed.
"I remember walking over there to him, I remember grabbing him to see if I had a pulse," Johnson said.
When asked how many times he told a supervisor Stratton needed to go to the hospital, Johnson said he raised the issue repeatedly.
"I said it more than once because they call what you say chain of command, I'd say something to a sargeant, I said something to a captain," Johnson said.
Stratton was arrested and booked into the Franklin County Detention Center in January 2019 and died six days later. The Franklin County Coroner ruled his cause of death as cardiac dysrhythmia and noted obesity and drug use as contributing factors.
Stratton's mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit, claiming he did not receive the medical care he needed while in custody.
Johnson says he came forward after seeing last week's LEX 18 Investigates report about a former nurse at the jail who pleaded guilty to perjury, admitting she lied about examining Stratton before he died.
LEX 18 Investigates
Former jail nurse pleads guilty to perjury in 2019 death of Franklin Co. inmate
"Something that serious going on, it should have been paid attention to," Johnson said.
Johnson says the case deserves a closer look.
"It's not about having power or authority over somebody. It's about taking care of somebody who is loved at the end of the day," Johnson said.
