Another Prisoner Dies in the Taylor County, Texas Jail

A man was recently found unresponsive in his cell in the Taylor County, Texas jail in Abilene. The Taylor County Sheriff’s office filed a custodial death report with the Attorney General regarding that death. The inmate was named Roy Dale Parson. We make no allegations of any wrongdoing in this post, but instead are simply providing information obtained from that report.

Mr. Parson was originally incarcerated in the Taylor County jail on July 21, 2018. The summary portion of the report is much shorter than typical summaries our law firm reviews in custodial death reports filed by Texas jails with the Texas Attorney General. It reads, in all capital letters, “WHEN A CORRECTIONAL OFFICER OPENED THE CELL DOOR TO GET TRASH, HE FOUND MR. PARSON UNRESPONSIVE. LIFE SAVING MEASURES WERE DONE AND MR. PARSON TRANSPORTED TO THE HOSPITAL WHERE HE WAS PRONOUNCED DECEASED.” The report indicates nothing regarding Mr. Parson’s cause of death, but it does indicate that he was 59 years of age at the time. Mr. Parson’s death brings the total in-custody deaths for the Taylor County Sheriff’s Department, for years 2017 through only the first portion of March 2019, to nine.

Written By: Dean Malone

Dean Malone

Dean Malone is the founder of Law Offices of Dean Malone, P.C., a jail neglect civil rights law firm. Mr. Malone earned his bachelor's degree at the University of Texas at Dallas, graduating summa cum laude with a 4.0 GPA, and from Baylor University School of Law with a general civil litigation concentration. Mr. Malone served in several staff positions for the Baylor Law Review, including executive editor. Mr. Malone is an experienced trial lawyer, trying a number of cases to jury verdict and also handling arbitrations through final hearing. He heads the jail neglect section of his law firm, in which lawyers litigate cases involving serious injury and death resulting from jail neglect and abuse. Lawyers frequently refer cases to Mr. Malone due to his focus on this very complicated civil rights practice area.