Medical examiner to review jail death of Robert Miller after Star-Telegram investigation
Tarrant County’s chief medical examiner will review the 2019 autopsy of Robert Miller, an inmate whose cause of death after being pepper-sprayed in jail was the subject of a Star-Telegram investigation published last week.
Miller was found unresponsive in his cell less than an hour after sheriff’s officers pepper-sprayed him three times, and he died about 12 hours later. A county medical examiner, Richard Fries, ruled he died of natural causes from a sickle cell crisis. The Star-Telegram investigation found that Miller did not have the disease.
The review of the autopsy will be by Chief Medical Examiner Kendall Crowns, who was hired in December and was not involved in the 2019 Miller case. The action came at the request of county Commissioner Roy Brooks after he read the Star-Telegram’s investigation.
Brooks announced his request during Tuesday’s commissioner meeting, where nine criminal justice advocates spoke about their concerns.
“I, too, am troubled by what appears to be a coverup in the death of Robert Miller,” Brooks said. “I have asked the county administrator to ask the current medical examiner, who was not the medical examiner when Robert Miller died, to take a look at the autopsy and medical records available to give court a report on his findings.”
The Star-Telegram obtained jail witness statements, Miller’s hospital records and other documents that were part of an internal Texas Rangers report. The newspaper asked outside medical experts, including a pathologist and a sickle cell expert, to review the records. They told the Star-Telegram that Miller most certainly did not have sickle cell anemia and could not have died of the disease. His wife and father confirmed that Miller was not afflicted with the disease.
The newspaper’s findings also question the thoroughness of Texas Ranger Trace McDonald’s investigation into Miller’s death, which was closed when the autopsy report found natural causes. Records don’t indicate whether McDonald discussed Miller’s condition with John Peter Smith Hospital, where Miller was treated and died. McDonald’s report also contained inconsistencies between the jailers’ accounts of what led to the pepper-spraying.
Fort Worth police arrested Miller on July 31, 2019, after someone complained about a panhandler. Miller was homeless and had mental health problems most of his life.
The officers discovered that Miller had years-old misdemeanor warrants related to his homelessness and intended to take him to a city jail, where he likely would have been cited and released.
But Miller grew angry when the officers wouldn’t allow him to clean up his camp. He repeatedly kicked a patrol car door and said he hated the police. An officer got an estimate from the city’s body shop on the damaged door that was $1 over the threshold to charge Miller with a higher misdemeanor and book him in the Tarrant County Jail.
He was pepper-sprayed during the intake process and complained to a nurse that he couldn’t breathe. He went into cardiac arrest shortly after.
The Sheriff’s Office declined to answer questions about the Star-Telegram’s investigation. The Medical Examiner’s Office and the Department of Public Safety, which oversees the Texas Rangers, also declined to comment.
Calls for a federal investigation
On Tuesday, speakers at the commissioner meeting were mostly members of the Broadway Baptist Church justice committee, which has met with Sheriff Bill Waybourn about conditions in the jail after previous Star-Telegram reporting.
“We asked for an explanation for the high number of deaths,” Katherine Godby said. “And the answer was, ‘Well those numbers need to be seen in a larger context.’ Clearly implying that this larger context made the high number of deaths not really all that high. But honestly, shouldn’t they be concerned about one?”
Godby, along with the eight others who spoke, called for an independent investigation on Miller’s death by the U.S. Department of Justice.
“I could get to the point of asking for a Justice Department investigation,” Brooks said in response. “I am not yet at that point. I want to hear from our medical examiner before taking that next step.”
Brooks then implored Waybourn to “look out there in the law enforcement community and find the best jail administrator and hire that person immediately.”
Brooks was the only commissioner who responded to the public comments regarding Miller’s death.
David Henderson, the civil attorney who is pursuing a wrongful death lawsuit against the county on behalf of Miller’s widow, said he was relieved to hear that Brooks took action.
“The law is incredibly unfair, but there’s absolutely nothing that prevents an elected official from doing the right thing,” he said on Tuesday. ”In terms of justice … the areas where we see people making progress are areas where elected officials step up.”
This story was originally published October 18, 2022 at 3:37 PM.
