Val Verde County, Texas Jail Prisoner Death Report to Texas Attorney General

The Val Verde County Sheriff’s Department, in Del Rio, Texas, recently filed a custodial death report with the Attorney General of Texas regarding the death of Matthew Tyler Fox. Mr. Fox was only 35 years of age at the time of his death. We have no personal information regarding how Mr. Fox’s death occurred, but we are simply providing information contained in that report.

Mr. Fox was originally incarcerated on or about December 16, 2018 in the Val Verde County jail. According to the report, Mr. Fox did not exhibit any mental health problems and did not make any suicidal statements. However, on December 18, 2018, Mr. Fox was discovered in his cell deceased. Mr. Fox had committed suicide using a bed sheet.

Texas jailers have constitutional duties to provide reasonable mental health care, and also to keep inmates from hurting themselves and others when there are known risks. The standard which Texas federal courts apply, for claims pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, is the “deliberate indifference” standard. There is some recent United States Supreme Court precedent indicating that a reasonableness standard might apply instead. However, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans is still grappling with this concept. Regardless, we make no allegation in this post of any wrongdoing by anyone related to Mr. Fox’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.