NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A federal judge has ordered a new trial in the civil case involving the death of a mentally ill inmate at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.
It follows questions raised by a NewsChannel 5 investigation.
Attorneys for the family of Charles Jason Toll cited NewsChannel 5's reporting and questioned whether the state intentionally hid critical evidence in their motion for a new trial.
After a two week trial in 2013, a jury found corrections officers and the warden at Riverbend were not liable for Toll's death.
But last month, judge John T. Nixon threw out the verdict and granted a new trial in the case.
"It means everything to me," said Toll's mother, Jane Luna. "I was just ecstatic."
The ruling is the latest twist in Luna's fight for her son.
"I am blessed for having the judge give us a second chance again," she added.
Luna's attorneys claimed the state hid critical evidence.
"We wouldn't be here looking at a second trial but for your efforts -- and I thank you for that," attorney Jeff Roberts said in an interview with NewsChannel 5 Investigates.
Their case relied heavily on video shot by a corrections officer that showed the final minutes of Toll's life.
Officers ordered Toll out of his cell in 2010, but when he refused they went in with force.
They cuffed Toll and carried him face down to an unlit prison yard where he died.
You could hear Toll say numerous times that he could not breathe.
A medical examiner ruled Toll's death a homicide and said officers -- one of whom weighed over three hundred pounds -- pressed shields on Toll's back suffocating him.
Attorneys from the Tennessee Attorney General's Office represented the state employees. They argued officers did nothing wrong.
But after The New York Times wrote an article about the case and mentioned a resignation letter written by one of the officers, NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked the state to see the letter.
The letter was written by the corrections officer who took the video the night Toll died.
He blasted the state's investigation into Toll's death and claimed the state falsified training records.
Our investigation discovered the state never turned that letter over to attorneys for Toll's mother.
"That letter would have been front and center being questioned of every witness that testified in that case. It was huge," said attorney Jeff Roberts.
He questioned whether the state intentionally removed the letter from the officer's personnel file.
In the motion for a new trial, Luna's attorneys also showed how the state altered the resignation letter it initially provided NewsChannel 5 after our records request.
The state removed the officer's handwritten notation at the bottom referring to additional pages of training records.
"That's just covering things up you know," Luna said.
Judge Nixon granted the motion for a new trial, but said he will recuse himself if there is a second trial.
The Attorney General's office has said it did not hide the letter, but does not know why it was not in materials turned over to Luna's attorneys before trial.
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