At the time of Talotta’s arrest and incarceration, he had been living in group homes since his mother’s death less than 10 years earlier, said attorney Alec B. Wright, who is representing Talotta’s estate.
On September 9, 2022, Talotta was cooking pasta at a group home when a staff member told him he wasn’t allowed to cook. The details are unclear, but Wright said an altercation ensued. A pot of boiling water appears to have fallen on Talotta’s foot, causing second-degree burns, torn ligaments, and fractures in his foot. Someone then called the police.
When law enforcement arrived, the officers unsuccessfully tried to dissuade the staff from pursuing charges against Talotta. Police took him to the hospital and then to jail, Wright said.
Wright said Talotta, who had an IQ of just above 60, had never been arrested before. During his jail intake in the early morning of September 10, he told a nurse, “I’m feeling pretty scared.”
Medical staff recorded in their notes that Talotta had “severe mental retardation, autism, anxiety, [and] depression.” They also wrote that he “appeared to be vulnerable and very child like [sic],” according to the complaint. The complaint states that he had also been diagnosed with diabetes and hypertension.
Some jail staff appeared to believe that Talotta was manipulative and dishonest.
“He attempted to blame his behaviors on his ‘Autism,’” the jail psychiatrist wrote, according to Wright. The psychiatrist also wrote that staff reported he was “childlike at times, exaggerating his symptoms and appearing to be very needy.”
On September 11, Talotta was sent back to the hospital, where doctors put a splint on his broken foot and gave him crutches. But when he returned to the jail, staff allegedly took those two medical devices away because they were not allowed in the mental health unit.
Cultures of Talotta’s wound collected at the hospital showed he had three bacterial infections. But the suit alleged that he received no care for his wound at the jail.
On September 13, Talotta went back to the hospital. Doctors gave him an antibacterial cream, liquid soap, gauze, dressing, and other items to care for his wound. But when he returned to the jail, medical staff confiscated these items, according to the complaint.
From there, Talotta’s condition continued to deteriorate.
On the evening of September 20, Talotta was reportedly found unable to speak and clutching his chest. Sitting on a bench in the common area, a physician at the jail gave him allergy medication and ordered him back to his cell, Wright told The Appeal. But Talotta couldn’t walk. An officer and another detainee helped him back to his cell. Less than three hours later, Talotta was found on the floor of his cell, convulsing and foaming at the mouth, Wright said.
The staff called paramedics, who took Talotta to the hospital. While there, the complaint says Talotta was discharged from jail—a move Talotta’s attorney says was designed to skirt accountability for what happened.
“It’s one of the practices of the Allegheny County jail so that they can misrepresent reporting and cause less paperwork,” Wright said. “When somebody like [Talotta] gets taken to [the hospital], they fill out a single page form that says we release him from custody. And as soon as they do that they no longer have to report the death—in their minds and it’s not true—as being an in-custody death.”
…
Talotta never regained consciousness. The next day, he was pronounced dead. According to his hospital report, he was diagnosed with sepsis, a potentially fatal condition that occurs when a bacterial infection enters the bloodstream. Hospital staff recorded serious secondary diagnoses, including kidney failure, respiratory failure, diabetic ketoacidosis, and cardiac arrest.
An autopsy by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office stated that Talotta’s death was natural and caused by heart disease.
Everybody involved is this needs to go to jail and then sent to the hole. Let them stay there for 5-10 years no contact with anyone. Fuckin animals.
Some jail staff appeared to believe that Talotta was manipulative and dishonest. “He attempted to blame his behaviors on his ‘Autism,’” the jail psychiatrist wrote, according to Wright. The psychiatrist also wrote that staff reported he was “childlike at times, exaggerating his symptoms and appearing to be very needy.”
I’m sorry, are they implying he was faking/playing up the effects of having an IQ of 60? What’s with the quotes around the word Autism? Can we please have the jail psychologist investigated while we’re at it?
The psychologist should be incarcerated. JFC.
People with mental disorders and/or disabilities don’t get believed, more at 11.
I have adhd and friends with mental and/or physical disabilities. Everyone is frustrated at how often they face roadblocks or issues because people and systems struggle to believe them, and a lot of shit is just about “proving” you are really “disabled enough”. Invisible disabilities are especially vulnerable, take people on the internet for some reason making fun of wheelchair users who can still walk a bit for example (as not all wheelchair users are incapable of walking). And this is a pretty global phenomenon, as I live in Europe, where I see and experience plenty of this stuff.
It’s incredibly frustrating, and it causes endless issues for people with disabilities, making life much harder than it already is. I wish people were just more willing to believe us when we say something. And not constantly belittle our issues.
The famous country of Europe
What’s with the quotes around the word Autism?
Probably because “autism” is burying the lede. Autism, on its own, typically doesn’t cause low IQ. It sounds like he had some other developmental disorders at play that may have had more significance toward the situation than just autism.
This is awful and cruel. Hope there will be justice.
There won’t be anything meaningful. A payout if there’s anyone alive to collect, a slap on the wrist for most people involved, maybe one sacrificial lamb to lose their job but theyll get rehired somewhere close and everyone will keep carrying on.
I hope that I’m wrong but I feel like nothing substantial will come of this. There are tons of services out there for special needs toddlers. There are some for teenagers, but there are very few services available to special needs adults and they are expensive! Governments (state, local, & county) are willing to cut funding for these people because voters just don’t seem to care about them. I imagine a group home with full staffing and quality training could have prevented all this. It all started because he wanted to cook macaroni. Absolutely heartbreaking.
Its cause our justice system is punitive not rehabilitative, our society continues to be progressively more and more fuxked up because of it. Prisons dont exsist to rehabilitate criminals into functioning citizens, they exsist to punish people for Material Conditions outside of their control, with little to no thoughts of recividism.
Don’t forget the slavery profits from prisoners via the 13th amendments second clause.
The fact that society itself treats former immates as shit doesn’t help with rehabilitation
One scared old man and they play pong with him, turn after turn. Like horrors about an alien abduction to us, that was to him a senseless torture he couldn’t neither stop nor understand. The fact it started over a minor accident and that much wrong, apathetic, vile decisions took place is anger inducing. None of them who could stop it gave a fuck before he collapsed on their ground. Many small shits made a hill to burry an inocents guy.
The cruelty is the point. It is 100% intentional and systemic.
