Tarrant County OKs another $800k in response to jail death and mistreatment lawsuits
The Tarrant County Commissioners Court on Tuesday, Dec. 3, approved $800,000 to the growing bill for mistreatment and deaths in the county jail.
The largest chunk of that amount came in the form of a $775,000 settlement in a case brought by the family of Kelly Masten, a woman with an intellectual disability who was hospitalized in a coma and covered with unexplained bruises after a 10-day stint in the county jail in April 2022.
Masten’s family sued the county in April, alleging that she did not receive the care she needed during her time in the jail.
After publication, Sheriff Bill Waybourn said in an emailed statement that he disagreed with the settlement.
“Our jail staff advocated for Ms. Masten in every way possible,” he said. “There was no abuse from anyone in the jail. She had a medical condition and that was the reason for the bruising. Because of HIPAA laws, I can’t comment any further.”
The commissioners also approved spending up to $30,000 on outside counsel for Kyle Longo, a detention officer involved in the altercation that resulted in the death of Anthony Johnson Jr. in the county jail in April.
The item passed 4-1, with Precinct 2 Commissioner Simmons casting the opposing vote, as she has for similar items in recent months. She said that hiring more outside counsel in the case does not represent the taxpayers’ best interests.
“Unlike some of my colleagues, I prioritize listening to the residents who take the time to speak at commissioners court,” she said in a statement. “The overwhelming consensus from the public has been clear — they do not support this expenditure.”
Residents who have spoken to this issue in recent months have urged the court to choose mediation over hiring more lawyers in the case.
While she officially cast a “no” vote for the Masten case settlement, Simmons told the Star-Telegram that was a mistake. She seconded the motion to approve the settlement and offered an apology to Masten’s family ahead of the vote. She took responsibility for the mistake in a separate statement and reiterated her support for the settlement.
The county medical examiner ruled Johnson’s death a homicide, and two other jailers — Rafael Moreno and Joel Garcia — have been indicted on murder charges.
The lawsuit brought by Johnson’s family in July named Moreno, Garcia and 13 other jailers as defendants.
The commissioners approved hiring outside attorneys for Moreno and Garcia in August. They approved hiring three more in September, and nine others in November, as well as outside counsel for the county, which was approved for up to $100,000.
Longo is the last of the defendants in the suit to be approved for outside counsel. He’ll be represented by a lawyer from the firm of Naman, Howell, Smith and Lee.
Each outside attorney has been approved for an expense of up to $30,000. With 15 outside lawyers and the firm to represent the county, the commissioners have approved up to $550,000 on legal fees alone in the case.
Johnson’s sister, Janell Johnson, has said that her family’s lawsuit is going to cost Tarrant County taxpayers “millions.”
Lawsuits alleging mistreatment and deaths in the jail have cost Tarrant County over $4.3 million in the past two years, KERA has reported.
Daryl Washington, the Johnson family’s attorney, said the county is doing something he has never seen in his career: hiring lawyers to argue against its own district attorney’s office.
“They’re going to put up a defense that holds that what these jailers did was not wrong,” he said. “Millions of dollars for attorneys to say the DA’s office is doing the wrong thing and should not be prosecuting these jailers.”
But no matter how much the county spends on defending those involved in the death of Anthony Johnson, Washington said, “it’s not going to change the facts of the case.”
Those facts are that Johnson is dead “for no reason at all,” Washington said, and the events recorded on the approximately 15 minutes of footage of the altercation.
The Sheriff’s Office released around five minutes of the footage in May, but has not complied with the Johnson family’s call for its release in full. Johnson’s mother Jacqualyne has described the full video as “quite a nightmare.”
The “big question” for Washington and the Johnson family is why Anthony was housed in a general population cell when it was clear that he should have been put on a mental health housing floor. The 31-year-old Marine veteran suffered from schizophrenia and was in the throes of a mental health crisis when he was arrested, his family says.
Johnson made his condition clear to the Saginaw police officers who arrested him, his family says, and that information should have been communicated to jail staff.
The commissioners also passed on Dec. 3 a resolution to request the state Legislature fund a state mental health facility in Tarrant County, while Janell and Johnson’s father Anthony Sr. looked on, waiting for their chance to speak during public comments.
To them, the resolution was another round of lip service on mental health matters that have become a mainstay of commissioners court sessions since Johnson’s death in April. In May, the court approved a resolution to dub the month Mental Health Awareness Month.
Jacqualyne Johnson, showing up to speak that month for the first time since her son’s death, called the resolution “disheartening.”
“I call BS,” said Chanell Johnson, Anthony’s other sister, in an interview with the Star-Telegram before that session in May. “You had someone that was schizophrenic. So if we’re here to talk about mental health, what are you doing in your workforce to ensure that your employees are aware of mental health?”
Speaking at Tuesday’s session, Janell Johnson asked, “Does it truly look like these commissioners are here to create meaningful change? Are they working to prevent lawsuits, or does it seem more like they’re using the funds meant to investigate mistreatment and violence within county departments to cover up wrongful deaths? Instead of addressing the root cause of injustice, they funnel money into facilities that do little to serve or uplift our community.”
During the Dec. 3 session, the Sheriff’s Office sent a press release announcing the eighth in-custody death so far this year. A 51-year-old inmate died after reporting he was feeling sick and being rushed to John Peter Smith Hospital on Monday, Dec. 2.
This story was originally published December 3, 2024 at 4:27 PM.
