Sons sue Tarrant County, say father’s jail-related death is part of country-wide epidemic

Billy Larae Freeland was drunk when he was booked into the Tarrant County jail in October of 2017.

Five days later, he was taken to the emergency room with acute respiratory and renal failure caused by substance abuse withdrawal and was essentially unresponsive. He never regained consciousness and, 12 days later, the 61-year-old Bedford man died, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by his sons.

Billy Freeland’s sons filed the wrongful death lawsuit in district court against Tarrant County and Sheriff Bill Waybourn on Oct. 12. In the suit, Taylor and Josh Freeland say their father died due to a lack of basic medical care while in custody at the Tarrant County Jail.

“(The Freelands’) main objective is to address problems in local jails and dealing with substance abuse victims,” the Freelands’ lawyer, Richard Arnold, said. “This is a big problem. A lot of those people end up in county jails. Those places need to be equipped to deal with the obvious consequences that there are going to be.”

The Sheriff’s Department said it could not comment on ongoing legal matters.

Arnold said that while Freeland was hospitalized in Tarrant County’s custody, he was no longer in the county’s custody at the time he died.

Staci Turner, the assistant records manager at the Tarrant County’s Sheriff’s Department, said that from 2013 to 2018, the jail has had no in-custody deaths due to substance abuse withdrawal. Any death in custody records prior to 2013 have been destroyed in accordance with state retention laws.

According to the suit, Billy Freeland had severe alcohol withdrawal symptoms while in jail but was not given the necessary medical care for someone detoxing from alcohol.

“Had Billy Larae Freeland been provided the proper medical care for his detoxification while he was in the Tarrant County Jail, he would not be dead today. Taylor and Josh Freeland would not be without a father,” the suit states.

According to the suit, “Billy was by his own admission a sick man — his disease —alcoholism.”

On Oct. 18, 2017, Billy Freeland was booked into the Tarrant County jail after a DUI conviction.

Freeland’s sons say members of their family called the jail repeatedly to warn jail personnel that Billy was likely to suffer side effects from alcohol withdrawal.

Still, Freeland’s sons say, “Billy received no meaningful medical intervention” for complications from withdrawal.

According to Medical News Today, severe alcohol withdrawal symptoms can include:

• severe tremors
• hallucinations, usually visual
• extreme disorientation
• seizures
• raised body temperature

These symptoms, Medical News Today states, can be life-threatening.

On Oct. 20, jail records, portions of which are included in the lawsuit, stated Billy Freeland was unwilling to let a nurse take his vital signs or assess him.

“He is naked in his cell and talking to the wall,” records included in the lawsuit state. “(He) is agitated, picking at the wall and yelling at this nurse to leave him alone. He is not oriented to place or time.”

Freeland was taken to the jail’s infirmary floor, where he was monitored. According to the suit, however, “no aggressive intervention” was taken as Freeland’s condition worsened.

“They needed to intervene and there are very practical ways to do that in terms of medication,” Arnold said. “And when (Freeland) was not responding, he should have been sent to the hospital. He should have been sent to the hospital long before he was.”

On Oct. 23, according to the lawsuit, Freeland was found lying on his cell floor. Citing jail records, the lawsuit states he was hallucinating and disoriented, had labored breathing and arm tremors.

Jail records note Freeland was combative and resistant as nurses assessed him.

Freeland was then taken to the emergency room at JPS Hospital, where his situation was assessed as critical, the lawsuit says. He was suffering from acute respiratory and renal failure, was mumbling incoherently and essentially unresponsive.

Freeland was admitted to the ICU on Oct. 23 but never regained consciousness, the suit says. On Nov. 4, he died from complications of detoxification.

Arnold said that while Freeland was in the hospital, the sheriff’s department decided it no longer needed to have officers watching him since he was in a coma. The sheriff’s department sought and received a court order 24 to 28 hours before Freeland died, meaning he was no longer in their custody at the time of his death.

The Freelands say in the suit that the jail and sheriff had a duty to provide their father with medical care and instead “acted with deliberate indifference to Billy’s rights” by not evaluating or addressing his detoxification complications.

“These are increasing problems with local jails as opposed to state institutions. They’re just not up to speed as much as they should or can be in dealing with people who have substance abuse issues,” Arnold said. “This is a big problem, especially with the opioid crisis.”

In the suit, the Freelands say they hope Billy Freeland’s death “will at least begin the conversation about how local penal institutions treat victims of substance abuse, an epidemic which has been spreading through the country at alarming rates.”

“Billy did not have to die,” the suit states. “Had the Defendants afforded Billy his basic constitutional rights, he would not have died.”

This story was originally published October 19, 2018 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Sons sue Tarrant County, say father’s jail-related death is part of country-wide epidemic."