Family gets largest known jail-death settlement in Texas: ‘We wanted justice’

Family of woman who died in Texas jail reaches $7 million settlement - The Washington Post

Michael Glenn Austin noticed his wife, Holly Barlow-Austin, was squinting during a May 2019 visit to the Texas jail where she was in pretrial detention.

By early June, she was “physically disabled, unable to walk, and blind,” according to a lawsuit her family filed against jail staffers, Bowie County and the for-profit company that ran the jail on the border with Arkansas, LaSalle Corrections. She died on June 17, 2019, after weeks of inadequate medical care despite her worsening health, the complaint alleged.

Last week, Barlow-Austin’s family reached a $7 million settlement in the case — the largest known jail-death settlement in the state, according to the family’s attorneys. Barlow-Austin’s mother and husband said on Thursday in a statement that the settlement would help give them closure.

“And we hope and pray that it will lead to changes in how our jails treat people in their custody and will save some lives in the future,” they said. “Because that’s what Holly would’ve wanted.”

Attorneys for the defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday. Beyond the $7 million amount, the terms of the settlement agreement are confidential.

Erik Heipt, the lead attorney for the family, said in a statement that the settlement should be a “wake-up call to all private jail and prison operators.”

“If you’re going to cut corners and put profits over people’s lives, there will be a steep price to pay,” Heipt said.

LaSalle Corrections has previously reached settlements with families of other Bi-State jail detainees.

In 2019, the family of Michael Sabbie, who died in his cell in 2015 after repeatedly saying he couldn’t breathe, reached a settlement with LaSalle Corrections, according to the Texarkana Gazette. The terms of the settlement were not made public. The following year, the family of Morgan Angerbauer, who was diabetic and died at the Bi-State jail in 2016 after yelling for help for hours, also reached an unspecified settlement with the company, the Gazette reported. Her family previously had been granted a $200,000 settlement, according to the Associated Press.

At the time of her arrest on April 5, 2019, Barlow-Austin was living with HIV and getting treatment for substance addiction, according to the family’s lawsuit. She also had been diagnosed with depression and bipolar disorder, according to the suit.

After Barlow-Austin was arrested for a probation violation, she was taken to the Bi-State jail to await trial.

When she had her first medical screening, she was “able-bodied, hydrated and well nourished,” the lawsuit said. But that changed quickly, it added.

The lawsuit alleged that, despite knowing she was taking medications for HIV and her mental health, jail staffers denied and delayed giving her the prescriptions her husband had brought to the facility after her arrest.

During visits, Barlow-Austin’s husband noticed that her health was deteriorating, according to the lawsuit.

On May 15, 2019, Barlow-Austin told her husband that she had a bad headache and leg pain, the lawsuit said. She had made workers at the jail aware of the problems, but they responded by telling her she “was just stressed out and had a ‘tension headache,’” according to the complaint.

When her husband tried to talk with the staff about her health, “they refused to discuss the situation with him,” the lawsuit said.

As weeks passed, Barlow-Austin sought help for nausea, dizziness, blurred vision, numbness in her limbs and a persistent headache, among other symptoms, according to the lawsuit. She was put in a medical observation cell but did not get proper attention, the lawsuit states.

By June 10, 2019, Barlow-Austin was “so fatigued and weak that she can barely crawl,” court documents state. Citing footage from the cell during her last two days at the Bi-State jail, the lawsuit said that at times, she was lying down “moaning in apparent agony” while holding an empty water cup.

That evening, her “serious medical needs remained on full display,” but staffers at the Bi-State jail were “indifferent to them,” according to the lawsuit.

She was taken to a hospital the next day, and she died on June 17 after she became septic and developed an infection because of her other health problems, the lawsuit said.

Heipt, the family’s attorney, said in his statement that the settlement sends a message that “this type of blatant disregard for human life will not be tolerated.”

Barlow-Austin’s mother and husband added that what happened to her was “inexcusable.”

“No one deserves to be treated the way they treated her,” their statement said. “We wanted justice. We wanted to show that Holly’s life mattered.”