Well-known civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump has filed two new lawsuits against Harris County for the abuse or deaths of eight people in the Harris County Jail. Crump became known for representing families in high-profile cases like Trayvon Martin and George Floyd.
One of the suits against Harris County, on behalf of the family of Roger Terry, comes more than a year after Terry died in jail. Terry, 32, was booked for three days when he experienced a medical emergency and according to witnesses was foaming at the mouth, going in and out of consciousness, and vomiting for 90 minutes before receiving assistance.
The lawsuit says Terry was “dragged into a cell and beaten by officers” but did not receive treatment for “head trauma or internal hemorrhaging, which he had sustained during the beating.”
“The other lawsuit details the horrific deliberate indifference that led to the deaths of Alan Kerber and Victoria Simon while also bringing claims on behalf of numerous individuals who were beaten ruthlessly by officers in the jail,” reads the press release. “This includes the beating of D’Alessandro Chavez-Sandoval which was caught on camera and released to the public just a few months ago.”
In recent years, the Harris County jail has come under fire from inmates, families, and the Texas Commission on Jail Standards.
The TCJS has repeatedly reprimanded the Harris County Jail for failing to make timely rounds to inmates, not providing appropriate medical care, and not staffing enough guards, among other things. TCJS has also repeatedly forced Harris County to pay to transfer inmates to other facilities because of overcrowding in the jail.
Crump has previously called on the Department of Justice to investigate the jail. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office, overseeing the jail, has not publicly commented on the latest lawsuits.
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