The Four Tops singer Alexander Morris is claiming in a lawsuit that he visited a Detroit-area emergency room (ER) for chest pain and ended up in a straitjacket after the staff assumed he was mentally ill when he told them he was a member of the famous quartet.
The singer arrived at the ER in April 2023 with chest pain and trouble breathing and asked staff “if he could prove his identity by showing his identification card,” resulting in a white male security guard telling him to sit his “black ass down” before he was placed in a straitjacket, Morris alleges in his lawsuit.
The “Can’t Help My Self” singer is suing the Ascension Macomb-Oakland Hospital in Warren, Michigan, for racial discrimination and false imprisonment, gross negligence, negligence, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The federal lawsuit, filed on Monday, names the hospital, nurse Holly Jackson, and security guard Greg Ciesielski as defendants.
“We remain committed to honoring human dignity and acting with integrity and compassion for all persons and the community,” Ascension told STAT News. “We do not condone racial discrimination of any kind.”
Morris called his experience “terrifying,” adding, “I see all of these posts on social media like ‘driving while black,’ ‘walking while black,’ but I never imagined I would become a victim of ‘being sick while black.'”
Morris went on to say that the hospital “clearly” condones racism because it “never fired the security guard that told me to sit my black ass down.”
“I filed the lawsuit to hold the hospital accountable for the way I was treated and to protect the younger generations from racism in healthcare,” the “Baby I Need Your Loving” singer added.
Roquel Payton, from left, Alexander Morris, Ronnie McNeir, and Duke Fakir of the Four Tops perform at the All In Music & Arts Festival in Indianapolis on Sept. 3, 2022. (Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File)
Ciesielski, however, died in September 2023 after suffering a ruptured aorta, according to STAT News.
Morris’s attorney Jasmine Rand told the outlet she was not aware the security guard named in the lawsuit had since died, adding that she and her team would move to sue Ciesielski’s estate instead.
The singer, who has “a significant known history of cardiac disease including the placement of stints and defibrillator,” arrived at the ER on April 7, 2023 by ambulance, where he was already receiving oxygen, the lawsuit states.
During his hospital visit, Morris was “diagnosed with a heart infraction that may require a heart transplant, pneumonia, and he suffered three seizures that day,” the complaint adds.
The suit goes on to allege that when Morris told a nurse and security guard “that he was a member of the famous Motown group the ‘Four Tops,’ and that he had current security concerns due to stalkers and fans,” hospital staff “did not believe” him and assumed he was mentally ill.
From there, an ER doctor removed the singer’s oxygen and instead ordered a psychological evaluation “despite his clear symptoms of cardiac distress and significant medical history,” the lawsuit alleges.
When Morris offered to show his identification to prove who he was, the singer was told to “sit his black ass down,” the complaint adds.
While in the straitjacket, Morris told ER staff that “he was having difficulty breathing and asked for the oxygen back but was ignored,” at which point the singer “asked to have the restraint device removed and asked for his personal belongings back so he could leave and seek treatment at another hospital,” the suit states.
“During this time his medical condition continuously declined and he was denied the medical treatment he desperately needed,” while several security guards were called to the area to ensure that Morris could not leave, the complaint adds.
After that, Morris’s wife arrived at the hospital, and she was told that “the doctors thought he was delusional,” the complaint claims, adding that the singer’s wife told a security guard that her husband was actually a member of The Four Tops. He has reportedly been a member since 2018. The guard reportedly “took no action” on Morris’s behalf, and he remained in a straitjacket.
Eventually, a nurse came to Morris’s side and asked him to show her a video of him performing at the Grammy Awards. Once the nurse realized that he was, in fact, a member of The Four Tops, she told a doctor, who then canceled the psychological evaluation. Emergency room staff then removed the straitjacket and placed Morris back on oxygen, the suit states.
The lawsuit claims that Morris was restrained for about 90 minutes, adding that the “Reach Out I’ll Be There” singer was offered a $25 Meijer gift card as an apology, which he refused to accept.
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