Lawsuit Alleges Cop Sent Intimate Messages and Scrolled TikTok While Man Suffered Drug Overdose

A new wrongful death lawsuit claims that a police officer sent intimate texts and scrolled on TikTok as a man suffered from an overdose in a police car, per The Oregonian.

In a federal lawsuit obtained by Complex, the family of 33-year-old Nathan Bradforth Smith alleges that officers in the City of Coos Bay, Oregon, ignored the signs that he was dealing with a methamphetamine overdose in the back of a parked car. They allege that officers inside was responding to their personal text messages and watching videos on TikTok.

The lawsuit names Benjamin Martin, Wesley O’Connor, and Tristan Smith as the officers who ignored Nathan’s overdose when he was arrested on July 7, 2024.

Nathan, who reportedly suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, was pronounced dead at a hospital after Martin discovered him unconscious in the car, with his death listed as “hyperthermia due to methamphetamine intoxication.”

According to state police investigation records obtained by local publications, Coos Bay officers had three separate encounters with Nathan on the day that he was arrested for alleged disorderly conduct.

Around 11 a.m. that morning, officers took a meth pipe during an unrelated investigation. Hours later, at 3 p.m., police received calls from bystanders and another business who reported that a man was scaring customers by screaming outside of it. At the time, officers told the man that if someone else made another report about him, he’d be arrested.

Then at 5 p.m., he was arrested at a Motel 6 after someone reported him lying on a sidewalk. Officers informed him that he was under arrest and handcuffed him on the ground after he didn’t stand. At the time, his breath was “loud and somewhat labored,” according to a state police officer who saw the body camera and dash camera footage of the situation.

When he was brought back to the station, Martin answered a text message that investigators obtained, writing, “I’m so ready for snuggles I feel like I haven’t seen you in a week.” When he returned the car, Nathan was unconscious, so Martin administered Narcan before calling an ambulance.

When they arrived, paramedics discovered that Nathan had a temperature of 107 degrees. He was taken to Bay Area Hospital, where he later experienced cardiac arrest and died, an hour after paramedics found him.

So far, no criminal charges have come from the investigation.