No murders by jailers in Tarrant County, sheriff says in touting office’s accomplishments
As Tarrant County continues to withhold information about a third-party autopsy review into a 2019 jail death, Sheriff Bill Waybourn held a press conference Tuesday to tout the his office’s achievements.
Waybourn told reporters he usually did press conferences when he needed to talk about a “horrific” issue. This time, he said he wanted to give “good news.” Waybourn said there had been scrutiny and misinformation going around about the office.
“Hopefully we can straighten the record as best we can today and go from there,” he said.
The sheriff told reporters Tarrant County was bringing home five awards from the American Jail Association, and that the jail had diverted 455 people to competency restoration programs or transferred them to outside care for mental health treatment.
Then Waybourn addressed what he called the “elephant in the room” — deaths in custody.
Tarrant County has had 52 deaths in custody since 2017, according to data provided by the Sheriff’s Office. Fourteen of those deaths occurred inside the jail and 38 happened at JPS Hospital. Three deaths were suicides. In 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic began, seven inmates died from COVID-19.
The numbers are comparable to those in similarly sized jails in Bexar, Harris and Dallas counties.
Waybourn said each jail death is reviewed by the county, medical examiner, Texas attorney general and Texas Jail Standards. He said none of the jail deaths were murder.
“Many hands are in that,” Waybourn said. “And at no time has a jailer been at fault for hurting or abusing or, absolutely, as terms of murdering have been used, that has never occurred.”
When asked by reporters what misinformation was being spread about the Sheriff’s Office, Waybourn said he has heard people come to commissioners court and accuse employees of murdering and beating inmates. Waybourn said it was OK to ask questions about deaths inside the jail when they happen.
“We want to be as transparent as we possibly can,” Waybourn said. “But I always tell people that we’re not the only investigative agency, so we have to be careful about information that we release due to litigation or the possibility of criminal charges coming out of another agency.”
County leaders have remained silent about a third-party autopsy review of Robert G. Miller, an inmate who died in 2019 after he was pepper sprayed three times at close range and not given medical attention when he told a nurse he could not breathe.
The contract for the review expired Feb. 28. Leaders have not answered questions about the review and said there are no records related to it.
Waybourn said he did not know when more information would come out about the third-party autopsy review. He said he believed it was important for the public and Miller’s family to have transparency about what happened to Miller inside jail walls.
Miller’s death had been listed as “natural” from a sickle cell crisis by a Tarrant County pathologist. Mller’s family and experts who spoke to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for an investigation into his death say he never had sickle cell anemia.
Tarrant County commissioners contracted with a third-party medical examiner, J. Scott Denton of Bloomington, Illinois, in December to conduct the review as a result of the Star-Telegram investigation.
A records request made by the Star-Telegram through the Texas Public Information Act was initially sent to the Texas Attorney General’s office by county officials to see if they could withhold records.
The Star-Telegram heard back on that records request Wednesday — officials from the Criminal District Attorney’s office say no communications or records of the review existed. The county subsequently pulled its opinion request from the Attorney General’s Office.
