A 10-year-old girl woke up in a Michigan field the morning of Jan. 15, 2023, and found her mother and two brothers dead, a new federal lawsuit filed by the woman’s family says.

Monica Cannady, 35, and her two children, 9-year-old Kyle Milton and 3-year-old Malik Milton, died from hypothermia in a field in Pontiac, according to the lawsuit filed on March 7.

The lawsuit said Cannady’s family and a good Samaritan contacted police numerous times trying to get her and her children help, but deputies refused and didn’t take their pleas seriously.

The lawsuit lists Oakland County and several individuals from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office as defendants.

“OCSO vehemently denies that any actions of OCSO personnel caused the tragic deaths of Ms. Cannady and her two young sons,” Oakland County Sheriff’s Office public information officer Stephen W. Huber told McClatchy News in a statement.

Trying to get help

On Jan. 13, 2023, Cannady left home with her three children in freezing temperatures. The four had no coats, hats or gloves on but instead were “draped in bedsheets,” the lawsuit said.

Around 1 p.m., a woman called police saying Cannady was knocking on doors asking for help and tried to break into a neighbor’s house, the civil complaint said.

Surveillance video showed Cannady enter a hospital at 1:09 p.m. A deputy arrived at the hospital and spoke to her briefly, according to the lawsuit.

The complaint said it was clear to the deputy that Cannady was having “psychiatric issues.” At times she “stared blankly” in response to questions, and when asked if she and the kids were OK, she said “I don’t know that,” the lawsuit said. She also suggested her kids called 911, despite them not having a phone, the complaint said.

The deputy watched as she and the children left and began walking toward downtown. When he asked from his window where they were going, she walked faster, the lawsuit said. Then he confronted her a third time, but she “continued to demonstrate fear and anxiety interacting with him,” the lawsuit said.

Cannady told the deputy she was going to a relative’s home, but instead of making sure she and her children made it there, he left the area as she continued to walk away, according to the complaint.

Cannady and her children continued to wander the streets until about 3:30 p.m. when she arrived at her mother’s home in “a state of panic,” banging on the door saying the police were trying to kill her and they were “bugging” her phone, the lawsuit said.

Several people begged Cannady to leave the children at the home, but around 4:30 p.m. she left with her three kids, the complaint said.

Cannady’s family went to the police station and reported that she and the children were missing and that she was having a mental health crisis, the lawsuit said.

Then, a good Samaritan called 911 and reported a family was in trouble and told dispatchers the kids were crying and freezing and there was “something going on” with Cannady, according to the lawsuit.

The man called 911 again 15 minutes later, reporting that no deputies had responded and that there “were three kids on the street, not wearing coats or hats, who were in harm’s way,” the lawsuit said.

At 4:57 p.m., a deputy arrived and told the man “you understand that there is nothing we can do about that right,” the lawsuit said. The man responded by saying, “There’s got to be somebody who can do something about it.”

The deputy then told the man he had to leave to help his partner with a traffic stop involving someone wanted for five felonies, the complaint said. However, the lawsuit said this was not true and the deputy chose to go to a traffic stop that was almost completed and did not involve anyone with felonies.

“Numerous efforts were made by OCSO personnel to help Ms. Cannady and her children. However, she refused all such efforts made by OCSO deputies to help. Importantly, at no time did any OCSO deputy have a legal basis to detain the family,” Huber told McClatchy News.

At about 5:15 p.m., the deputy’s sergeant ordered him to go back to the area and look for Cannady and her children, the complaint and the sheriff’s office said. However, from 5:14 to 5:30 p.m., the deputy’s body camera captured a “shocking” phone conversation, according to the lawsuit.

‘Real police work’

During a 16-minute conversation with an unknown person, the deputy complained about being ordered to perform a welfare check on Cannady and her children, the complaint said.

The deputy said he wanted to do “real police work,” the lawsuit said. He went on to say it was a “dumb (expletive) welfare check” and the good Samaritan who called was a “ghetto politician,” according to the complaint.

The deputy said the family was just “homeless being homeless” and there was no point in looking for them to put the kids in “(expletive) foster care and get raped,” according to the complaint.

“The kids will still be there and they will be just fine. … People in Pontiac just don’t die. … It’s a CYA (cover your [expletive]) because a dumb (expletive) ghetto politician can’t just leave well enough alone just because it is kind of cold out. … I don’t particularly care,” he was heard saying during the conversation.

The Detroit Free Press obtained the body cam footage, in which the deputy can be heard saying he doesn’t want to “come to work anymore” and that the “local politician” is upset that he didn’t “go check on the dumb (expletive) kids.”

The deputy did not look for Cannady and her kids but instead left the area, the complaint said. The good Samaritan continued to call 911.

Around 7:45 p.m., the deputy was dispatched to go back to the area and search for the family; however, he requested another deputy be assigned, according to the complaint. When asked why, he said he was “performing routine patrol duties,” the lawsuit said.

Huber said the deputy is no longer employed at the sheriff’s office.

“After reviewing bodycam footage of OCSO personnel during that timeline, numerous statements were made by one former OCSO deputy sheriff that were not in keeping with OCSO standards of conduct for its deputies. An internal affairs investigation was initiated and the deputy resigned before a disciplinary review could be completed,” Huber said.

Three other deputies arrived, and the good Samaritan told them “three children were screaming, they are in trouble … I feel that,” the lawsuit said.

While looking through the area, one of the deputies laughingly told another that he “flashed my lights so it seems like we [performed a thorough search],” the complaint said.

At 8:05 p.m., deputies stopped looking for Cannady and her children, according to the complaint.

That night, Cannady told her children to sleep outside in a field because she believed the police were trying to kill them, the lawsuit said.

Around 3:15 p.m. the next day, Cannady’s 10-year-old daughter went to a home, pointed at the field across the street and said her mom and siblings were dead, the complaint said.

The lawsuit is asking for an undetermined amount in damages.

Pontiac is about a 30-mile drive northwest from Detroit.

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