Mason Tyler Simon Dies After Being in Guadalupe County Jail – Texas Rangers Will Likely Investigate

The Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office, in Seguin, Texas, filed a report with the State of Texas regarding the custodial death of Mason Tyler Simon. Mr. Simon was only 30 years old at the time of his death. We provide in this post information we obtained from that report, and we make no allegation of any wrongdoing against anyone.

The summary portion of the report reads in its entirety:

“Inmate Simon was found in his cell on April 4, 2021 at 1627 hours by Detention Officer Kristie Caraway with a t-shirt around his neck and tied to cell bars in A-67. He was cut down and life safety measures were performed. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) was notified, he was transported to the hospital and pronounced deceased on April 5, 2022 at 1735 hours.“

Thus, the summary provides no information at all as to whether Mr. Simon was on suicide watch, was being properly observed, or had made any statements about committing suicide. While an answer to a question in the report about whether Mr. Simon had made suicidal statements reads ”no,” this may not tell the whole story.

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards requires all county jails, at prisoner intake, to complete a medical and mental health screening form. The form asks a number of questions related to a person’s mental health. If the questions are answered a certain way, the jail must notify a judge.

The United States Constitution requires jails to protect prisoners from self-harm tendencies, and to provide reasonable medical and mental health care. If jailers fail to do so, and/or a county’s policies, practices, and/or customs result in such an occurrence, and a person dies as a result, then surviving family members may be able to bring a federal civil rights lawsuit. Our law firm has a number of such jail death lawsuits pending, and we continue to see far to many suicides in Texas jails. It is an epidemic.

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.