Family members of a Milwaukee man who died at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex in Wauwatosa four years ago have filed a federal lawsuit.

The Milwaukee County district attorney rules that the death of a patient at the county mental health complex was not criminal.

Brandon Johnson died at the facility in October 2012. An autopsy showed he had a broken neck that caused several blood clots.

Johnson was a 25-year-old college student, admitted to the mental health complex because he was behaving strangely. Later on the day of his admission, staff found him on the floor of his room. He told them he’d fallen and couldn’t move from the waist down. According to the lawsuit, Johnson repeatedly asked to be transferred to the hospital, but staff declined to take him across the street to the trauma center at Froedtert Hospital. Staff told his mother his symptoms were psychosomatic, not physical.

Three days later, Johnson was dead. The complaint says staff left him in a geriatric chair, during which he developed the blood clots that killed him.

“It’s certainly mysterious that he would have suffered such a significant injury on his own at the mental health complex,” family attorney Jonathan Safran said.

Milwaukee County’s district attorney conducted an inquest into the death. He declined to file criminal charges, but in his decision, DA John Chisholm noted potential negligence on the part of hospital staff. Several staffers have been disciplined by the state, and the Mental Health Complex was the target of a state investigation that resulted in several citations against the facility.

“I’m thankful for the changes that have occurred, but it shouldn’t have taken my son’s life for it to change,” Alicia Johnson said.

Alicia Johnson said she hopes the lawsuit provides answers on how her son was injured, and why staff failed to adequately address his medical needs. She hopes it will prevent other such injuries in the future.

“I still to this day don’t know what happened to my son. … He died alone. My son died alone without me or family being around,” she said.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages to be determined at trial.

WISN 12 News asked the county executive to comment on the lawsuit, and expects a response this afternoon.