Julie Ann Cherry Dies After Being in Cass County, Texas Jail – Rangers Likely to Investigate

The Cass County Sheriff’s Department, in Linden, Texas, filed a report regarding the custodial death of Julie Ann Cherry. Ms. Cherry was only 48 years old at the time of her death. We provide in this post information we obtained from that report, and we make no allegation of any wrongdoing against anyone.

Ms. Cherry was arrested only for public intoxication. Unfortunately, we find when representing families of those who dies in Texas jails, that many people who die in our jails were arrested for low-level offenses. These typically include Public Intoxication and/or Criminal Trespass. It is vitally important, if a person is arrested for public intoxication, and there appears to be indications that the person may need medical assistance, that arresting officers and or jailers contact EMTs for an evaluation. Further, if a person does not “sober up” or becomes worse while in jail, jailers should obtain a medical evaluation, even if an evaluation was conducted at the time of arrest and/or jail intake.

As to Ms. Cherry, the summary portion of the death report reads in its entirety:

“Deceased was placed in detox cell and being checked on regular intervals per jail standard guidelines. Deceased was found unresponsive EMS was called and CPR started.”

Thus, the summary portion of the report provides no information about what if anything was observed when Ms. Cherry was checked in her cell, whether she received any medical treatment, whether she requested any medical treatment, and/or other important information helping the public and family determine whether Ms. Cherry was appropriately treated while in jail.

The 14^th Amendment to the United States Constitution requires that Texas jailers provide reasonable medical care to inmates. We unfortunately frequently find that people in our Texas jails are not provided even the most basic medical care. If jailers and/or police officers fail to provide reasonable medical care to an inmate or arrestee, and the inmate or arrestee dies as a result, then certain surviving family members may be able to bring a lawsuit. Our firm is handling a number of such jail neglect cases across Texas.

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.