Tarrant County commissioners to discuss jail death case in closed session
Tarrant County commissioners will discuss litigation surrounding a 2019 jail death in closed session during their meeting Tuesday
Inmate Robert G. Miller died in August 2019 after he was pepper sprayed at least three times at close range during intake. He was not given medical treatment when he told a nurse he could not breathe.
A Tarrant County medical examiner had listed Miller’s death as “natural” from a sickle cell crisis. Miller’s family and experts on sickle cell anemia who spoke to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for an investigation into his death say Miller never had the disease.
The investigation prompted a third-party autopsy review, which commissioners approved in December. The county contracted with Bloomington, Illinois-based medical examiner J. Scott Denton to do the review. That contract expired Feb. 28, and officials have remained silent on it since.
The last time commissioners discussed the case was during a two-hour closed session Feb. 21. Commissioners did not take action on the case before the meeting adjourned.
County officials have used pending litigation as an excuse to not discuss the case. Miller’s widow, Shanelle Jenkins, was pursuing a federal lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Office. Jenkins’ case is on the commissioners’ agenda for Tuesday’s meeting. It will be discussed in closed session.
But that case was delivered a blow on April 3 when a federal appeals court prevented it from moving further. Jenkins had sought to amend her complaint with more information about what happened to her husband inside the jail, but could not do so because cases have to be filed within two years of death.
The Star-Telegram has requested documents related to the review through the Public Information Act. The Criminal District Attorney’s Office asked the Texas attorney general for a opinion on whether it could withhold records. Then county officials came back and said no records existed and pulled their request with the attorney general.
Sheriff Bill Waybourn held a press conference on Tuesday to tout the Sheriff’s Offices achievements. During that press conference, he said there had been misinformation going around his employees murdering and hurting inmates.
He told reporters that when deaths happen in the jail, they’re investigated by the county, the medical examiner, the Texas Rangers and Texas Jail Standards.
“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.”
