WASHINGTON COUNTY, Wis. — It's been three years since Jalen Proft was killed inside the Washington County Jail.
"Every time I get near it, I just have this feeling of being unsettled, not being happy," his mother, Mary Jane Proft, said.
Jalen Proft was beaten to death by another inmate who pleaded guilty to his murder in 2021, but family believes Washington County and its sheriff are responsible for Jalen Proft's death.
Last week, the Proft family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Washington County, the Washington County Sheriff, several corrections officers, and others.
"Out of 13 kids, he was like the most lovable," Mary Jane Proft said.
Jalen Proft was one of Mary Jane and Thomas Proft's 13 adopted kids. They fostered a total of 85.
"He just never left the house without coming and giving me a real soft bear hug and kissing me on the cheek and saying 'I love you, mom'," Mary Jane remembered.
Actions and words she'll never hear again.
On August 15, 2021, Jalen Proft was arrested by Hartford Police for operating while intoxicated, in turn, violating his probation.
Watch: Family of man killed in Washington Co. Jail files suit against sheriff & county
"Jalen had been driving, he was with his girlfriend, drops the girlfriend off, it's late, he doesn't have keys to get back into his home, so he was asleep in the car. It just happened to be the keys were in the ignition," family attorney, Nate Cade, said.
Cade said Jalen Proft was arrested and taken into custody because he refused a breathalyzer test, even though the car was not moving or on.
"Non-violent offenses, and they put him in a pod where, under the classification, those individuals were at higher risk or more security risk," Cade said.
The man who pleaded guilty to Jalen Proft's murder, George Telford, was in the Washington County Jail at the time for strangulation and suffocation with a domestic abuse modifier, batter with a domestic abuse modifier, disorderly conduct with a domestic abuse modifier, unauthorized use of individuals information or documents, and fleeing an officer. That's all according to court documents.
Cade and family told TMJ4 that Telford went into Jalen Proft's cell and started pummeling him. Court records allege Telford dragged Jalen Proft out of his cell at one point, he was on the ground, and Telford was stomping on his head.
"I think that there was negligence on the part of the sheriff's department. When we got all the findings of the investigation, they admitted that where Jalen was placed, there was not visibility to even necessarily see that he was being attacked," sister, Magdalia Proft-Maikowski, explained.
Family said it took corrections officers more than five minutes to realize what was going on, and at that point, Jalen Proft had been beaten so badly he was unconscious.
"Somebody wasn't doing their job," Proft-Maikowski reiterated.
TMJ4 called the sheriff's office. We were told they don't comment on pending litigation. We also called the county's attorneys, who never returned our calls.
"Nobody expects that this would happen to their child," Mary Jane Proft said. "I'm talking to you because I would like the world to know what really happened, they don't know."
Family and their attorneys said corrections officers inside the Washington County Jail admitted surveillance cameras had blind spots. To this day, no video from Jalen Proft's death has ever been released.
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