Jury awards $8.3 million to foster teen's family after his death at juvenile intake center

Jurors have awarded $8.3 million to the family of a Kansas foster teen who died in 2021 after he was held facedown for 39 minutes in a juvenile intake center while in the throes of a mental health crisis. Five juvenile officers in Sedgwick County either used excessive force on Cedric “C.J.” Lofton or failed to intervene, the jurors decided Wednesday after a trial in federal court in Wichita. John Marrese, an attorney for Lofton’s brother and the estate, said Thursday that he was pleased that jurors rejected arguments that the death stemmed from “excited delirium,” a controversial diagnosis discredited by major medical associations.