'So Ready for Snuggles': Oregon Cop Abandoned Dying Man in Car to Watch TikToks and Text Lover, Lawsuit Says

A Tragic Case of Negligence and Deliberate Indifference

A recent federal lawsuit has brought attention to a disturbing incident involving an Oregon police officer who allegedly left a handcuffed man suffering from a methamphetamine overdose unattended in the back of a patrol car while engaging in personal activities. The case centers around Nathan Bradford Smith, a 33-year-old man whose life ended tragically during an arrest in Coos Bay, Oregon.

Smith’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the local police department, accusing them of negligence, abuse of a vulnerable person, and "deliberate indifference." According to the complaint, Smith suffered a fatal methamphetamine overdose during his arrest on July 7, 2024, and lost consciousness in the back of a police vehicle.

The incident was captured on a dashcam video, which shows Smith breathing heavily and slumping over in the backseat after being placed in the car. Despite this, the officer who transported him left him alone for eight minutes while he went inside the police station. During that time, the officer reportedly scrolled through TikTok and sent intimate text messages. One message read, “I’m so ready for snuggles I feel like I haven’t seen you in a week.”

The officer also turned his body camera around to conceal his actions on his phone. When he finally returned, he found Smith unconscious. He administered Narcan from his trunk and called for an ambulance, but by then, it was too late. Paramedics discovered that Smith’s body temperature had reached 107.3 degrees, and he later went into cardiac arrest at the hospital.

Doctors determined that Smith's cause of death was “hyperthermia due to methamphetamine intoxication and probable exogenous contribution from wearing multiple layers of heavy clothing.” The entire process from his arrest to cardiac arrest took 40 minutes, according to the lawsuit.

Previous Encounters and Police Actions

State police investigations revealed that officers had encountered Smith earlier that day. During their first encounter, they found him sitting outside a store and removed a meth pipe from his possession. In a second encounter, they were called to a business where Smith was reportedly screaming and scaring customers. Officers warned him they would arrest him after the next call.

Later that afternoon, someone called 911 after seeing Smith lying on the side of the road near a Motel 6, flailing his arms. When police arrived, they struggled to get him to stand up and move on his own, eventually helping him into the patrol car.

According to a state investigator’s report, Smith had been flagged in the local police database as an "officer safety risk" due to his history of drug use, mental illness, and past conflicts with officers. Police told investigators they decided to arrest him at the Motel 6 due to his "violent tendencies" from previous encounters.

Officer's Explanation and Lack of Charges

In a written statement, the officer who transported Smith to the police station claimed he left him in the car to call another officer due to a shift change and to ask a sergeant whether he needed to write a probable cause affidavit to charge Smith with having another person’s wallet. He stated that there were no other officers to monitor Smith at the time.

The officer also mentioned that he left the air conditioning running in the patrol car and that the back windows remained up because they weren’t working correctly. However, no criminal charges were filed against any of the officers involved in Smith’s arrest after the investigation concluded.

Family's Reaction and Legal Claims

Smith’s father, Kurt Smith, told the Oregonian newspaper that police informed him his son had died but did not share the circumstances of his death. He only learned the cause of death when he visited the funeral home. “He didn’t deserve to just be left to die,” he said.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and alleges that the officers were “deliberately indifferent to Mr. Smith’s serious medical need or otherwise serious risk of harm in not calling for medical attention or otherwise rendering aid to a person with Mr. Smith’s conditions in their custody.”

This case raises serious questions about the responsibilities of law enforcement when dealing with individuals in medical distress and highlights the consequences of neglecting those in their care.