Sweet Dagza Dies in Lubbock County Jail – Sheriff’s Department Waits Months to File Required Report
The Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office, in Lubbock, Texas, filed a report with the Attorney General of Texas regarding the death of Sweet Dagza. Ms. Dagza was 60 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.
The summary portion of the report reads in its entirety:
“On June 23, 2021, at approximately 02:05 am, Officers were conducting a jail security checks in the medical unit when they found inmate Sweet Dagza unresponsive on her bed. A radio call for an unresponsive inmate was announced. Jail medical personnel arrived and began assessing Inmate Dagza and Emergency Medical Services were called. EMS arrived at approximately 02:24 and pronounced Inmate Dagza deceased. The Metropolitan Special Crimes unit was contacted to investigate the death. The deceased was turned over to the Lubbock Medical Examiner’s Office.”
Therefore, the report provides very little information regarding what if any medical and/or mental health issues Ms. Dagza was having. The report indicates that Ms. Dagza was originally in custody a little over two weeks before her death. Ms. Dagza was apparently initially incarcerated at approximately 2:00 p.m. on June 6, 2021. The fact that the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office did not file a report with the Attorney General until February 15, 2022 likely indicates that it violated Texas law. Texas law requires that a county who has a person in custody at the time of that person’s death must report the death to the Attorney General, on a prescribed form, within 30 days after the death. It appears that the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office waited many months to report the death, for some unknown reason.
The Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office chose not to provide any information at all in the report in response to the following field prompts: Manner of Death Description; Custody Code; Death Code; Intoxicated; Code of Charges; and Medical Treatment Description. The report does indicate that Ms. Dagza did not make any suicidal statements. However, the report also indicates that Ms. Dagza exhibited medical problems and mental health problems.
Our Texas jails have far too often become a dumping ground for people with mental health issues. It seems that virtually every case that our firm reviews, in some way, touches on mental health issues. It is far past time for Texas to do something about incarcerating mentally ill people, and treating them as if they were typical inmates.
The report does not indicate anything about periodic checks of Ms. Dagza, which would be required by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. The report also does not indicate any specifics regarding any medical and/or mental health issue observations.
The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution provides rights to people in Texas jails, such rights including the right to receive reasonable medical care, mental health care, and protection from self and others. If a person’s rights are violated, and the person dies as a result, then specific family members may be able to bring a lawsuit in federal court.
Dean Malone
Dean Malone