Brownwood family files lawsuit against Hendrick, Brownwood police officer

SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) — A federal lawsuit was recently filed against Brown County, the City of Brownwood, Hendrick Medical Center, a Brownwood police officer and a county jail official after a Brownwood satirical publisher lost his life when he was removed from his home for an Emergency Detention Order.

A petition filed within the court system shared that 39-year-old Trenton Ray, a publisher for “The Brownwood Roman Times,” was “engulfed in panic and depression” on May 8, 2023, due to Mother’s Day approaching and losing his mom one year prior.

Ray, who had bipolar disorder and autism, soon began to rapidly cycle between anger, calm, despair, acceptance, rational and irrational states and started using alcohol to self-medicate later that afternoon. After reaching an inebriated state, Ray became suicidal and reached out to care providers at the Center for Life Resources of Brownwood and his co-workers for help. CFLR responded by immediately deploying a caseworker to assist Ray and requested a Brownwood police officer to the residence for a welfare check.

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Upon arrival, the CFLR case worker found Officer Holdar, who was familiar with Ray, speaking with him on the front porch. The officer soon departed to let the case worker handle the situation.

According to the petition, the caseworker determined that Ray needed immediate inpatient mental health care after watching him rapidly cycle between various states. Because Ray did not meet the criteria for the CFLR center and refused to go anywhere, the caseworkers filled out an application for an Emergency Detention Order and called for Officer Holdar’s return to the residence.

Through an EDO, “patients are placed on a court-issued protective custody warrant to involuntarily commit patients to a mental hospital” the document reads.

Shortly after, a Justice of the Peace drove to the residence to review and sign the application for the EDO.

Ray was informed it was time to go to the hospital by the caseworker. However, he refused to go and tried to re-enter his home. Officer Holdar then placed Ray in handcuffs and transported him to Hendrick Medical Center in a squad car. Before departing from the residence, Ray shared with both men how he did not want to be hospitalized and began displaying panic about being involuntarily committed to the state mental hospital system.

When the caseworker arrived at Hendrick Medical Center in Brownwood, as stated by records, Officer Holdar had Ray in handcuffs. Ray escalated into a psychiatric state. After a few minutes near the ER nurses’ station, Ray began to calm down.

Instead of taking Ray to a secure, safe environment for holding mental patients, it was determined that Ray would check in at the ER admissions desk. Officer Holdar soon left the hospital after informing Ray that he would arrest him for public intoxication if he left the hospital, despite not making sure Ray was properly admitted into the hospital, the petition states.

Within seconds of Officer Holdar leaving, Ray announced he would also be leaving and headed to what he thought was the exit. Shortly after, the security officer and caseworker informed Ray he was not allowed to be in that area of the hospital and walked him back to the ER admission room. Records report that the two men, along with other hospital staff, watched as Ray left the hospital and failed to contact Officer Holdar or call for orderlies.

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Both the security officer and caseworker tailed Ray in a truck that night while calling the Brownwood police dispatch to recapture and jail Ray. Within 15 minutes of leaving the hospital, Officer Holdar recaptured Ray alongside another officer, as shown in body camera footage. Officers were able to handcuff Ray without resistance or a chase.

After pleading with officers to take him back to the hospital, Officer Holdar told Ray that “he had his chance” and was now going to jail. However, the documents stated that since the EDO was still in effect, officers were to take Ray back to Hendrick Medical Center in Brownwood.

Ray began yelling at the police officers as they walked him toward the squad car. He became uncooperative, causing the two officers to propel him toward the vehicle. Another officer joined in, along with the security officer from the hospital, to grab Ray.

In Officer Holdar’s report, he states that he pulled Ray’s arms upwards on his back.

“What the report does not state is that he did so with such force that it broke both of Trenton’s arms at the shoulder,” the petition reads.

Due to the severe pain, Ray began screaming he was injured and in pain, but the team forced him to the ground into a total body restraint that made the injuries and pain worse.

Once they arrived at the Brown County Jail around 9:30 p.m., jail footage showed jail official Ty Harrell meeting with Trenton and supervising his intake with two possible trainees. These employees were told that Ray had been placed under arrest due to public intoxication and resisting arrest. However, they failed to ask why he was not taken back to the hospital despite Ray’s oddly dangling arms and his screams in pain.

Harrell ordered employees to complete a mental health intake questionnaire and disrobe Ray for a shower. Because Ray could not use or lift his arms, Harrell and two jailers had to pull off Ray’s clothes and get soap from the soap dispenser on the wall.

Ray was then placed into a padded cell with no toilet and put on a suicide watch, according to records. While in the cell, Ray did not receive any water and became severely dehydrated despite begging for water. The petition states “This severely damaged his kidneys and worsened his shoulder injuries.”

It was not until 22 hours later that Ray received a pulse check and aspirin, even though multiple employees saw his injuries and observed him moaning and begging for help and water approximately every 15 minutes in the cell.

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At around 11:05 a.m., a chief told a morning shift officer, “I think we need to send him to the ER.” The petition reports that Ray was transported back to Hendrick Medical Center at 11:30 a.m. that morning.

Ray was placed in the intensive care unit at Hendrick Brownwood and Hendrick Medical Center in Abilene, where he underwent multiple surgeries on his arms over three months. Furthermore, the trauma and shock of his untreated injuries caused his kidney to fail, resulting in him being placed on dialysis. After five months, Ray was able to return home.

The charges of public intoxication and resisting arrest were dropped. However, Ray’s kidney failure caused other organs to also fail. When the petition was filed, Ray was fighting for his life at Hendrick Abilene. Ray lost his life on Feb. 13, 2024.

“We stand with the family of Trenton Ray and the entire community of Brownwood, Texas, to demand truth and transparency from all defendants in this case: the police, the jail and the hospital. The City of Brownwood is mourning the loss of a beloved friend and neighbor, and it’s time for city leaders to demand a full investigation into the tragedy that occurred here,” said civil rights Attorney Kevin Green. “What happened to Mr. Ray wasn’t just misconduct on the part of a few employees, it was the entirely predictable and preventable result of a failure to plan, train and supervise.”

Concho Valley Homepage staff reached out the the Brownwood Police Department but had not received a response at the time of this publication.

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