Montgomery County, Texas Jail Prisoner Dies in Custody

The Montgomery County, Texas Sheriff’s Department recently filed a report with the Attorney General of Texas regarding the custodial death of William Otto Nuttall, Jr. Mr. Nuttall was 58 years of age at the time of his death. Information in this post was obtained from that report, and we do not allege that anyone did anything wrong when dealing with Mr. Nuttall.

Mr. Nuttall was arrested on August 1, 2018 at approximately 3:02 p.m. He was allegedly so intoxicated that he could not stand. He was therefore put into a padded cell. During a regular check by jailers, Mr. Nuttall was unresponsive. Mr. Nuttall was then transferred to the Conroe Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced deceased approximately 20 minutes after arrival.

The custodial death report is dated January 28, 2019, and it is designated as the original version. Therefore, it appears that the Montgomery County Sheriff Department violated state law in failing to file a custodial death report within 30 days after Mr. Nuttall’s death. Texas law requires that a law enforcement agency which experiences a custodial death must file a custodial death report with the Texas State Attorney General within 30 days after that death. We are uncertain as to why Montgomery County apparently chose not to file the report regarding Mr. Nuttall until many months after he had passed away.

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.