Man Commits Suicide in Bastrop County, Texas Jail

The Bastrop County Sheriff’s Department filed a custodial death report with the Attorney General of Texas regarding the death of Juan Carlos Diaz-Ortiz.  Mr. Diaz-Ortiz was only 39 years of age at the time of his death.  We provide information in this post obtained from that report, and we make no allegation of any wrongdoing against anyone.

Mr. Diaz-Ortiz was originally incarcerated on February 19, 2020.  On April 29, 2020, at approximately 3:06 a.m., a jailer was doing an inmate roster count for his assigned post.  The jailer entered a certain cell area. When he came upon Cell C, he observed Mr. Diaz-Ortiz hanging from a brass handle located on a wall near his bunk.  Officers conducted CPR, and EMS responded to the scene.  Unfortunately, Mr. Diaz-Ortiz was pronounced deceased. 

The report indicate that Mr. Diaz-Ortiz did not make suicidal statements and did not exhibit any mental health problems.  The report provides no other information about what knowledge jailers might have had regarding Mr. Diaz-Ortiz and any mental health issues.

Without regard to what happened to Mr. Diaz-Ortiz, the United States Constitution guarantees the right of pre-trial detainees in Texas jails to reasonable mental health care and to be protected from self-harm tendencies.  Thus, if jailers are aware of suicidal tendencies of an inmate, and they are deliberately indifferent to and/or act in an objectively unreasonable manner regarding those tendencies, then they can be liable to certain surviving family members of a person who commits suicide. Once again, this is general information, and we are not alleging that any such claim arose from Mr. Diaz-Ortiz’s death.

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.