John Allen Ellingwood Dies in Texas Jail
The Roanoke Police Department filed a custodial death report with the State of Texas regarding the death of John Allen Ellingwood. Mr. Ellingwood was 46 years old at the time of his death. We provide in this post information we obtained from that report, and we do not allege that anyone did anything wrong and which caused Mr. Ellingwood’s death.
The summary portion of the custodial death report was relatively short, and it read in its entirety:
“Ellingwood was arrested for Possession Controlled Substance PG 1 < 1G and Evading Arrest Detention. He was placed into double locked handcuffs and seated in the back right seat of the patrol unit. Ellingwood was then transported to the Jail Facility where Medics were called for a possible overdose. Ellingwood did not disclose what he ingested. He was released from custody and transported to the hospital.”
The report says nothing regarding the time period during which events in described in the summary portion occurred. Further, the Roanoke Police Department failed to provide any information in the following fields in the report: Death Code; Custody Code; Code of Charges; Intoxicated; and Medical Treatment Description. The Roanoke, Texas Police Department did indicate that Mr. Ellingwood did not make suicidal statements, did not exhibit any medical problems, and did not exhibit and mental health problems.
The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the right of pre-trial detainees to receive reasonable medical care and mental health care. This is an important right, because people in custody no longer have control over their ability to obtain medical care. Thus, if someone dies in a Texas jail, and jailers are deliberately indifferent to, or act unreasonably regarding, a prisoner’s medical needs, then those jailers could be liable to certain surviving family members. These cases are typically brought in federal court.
Dean Malone
Dean Malone