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| Texas Sheriff's Dept. Accused of Withholding Inmate's Medicine |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 10/29/2002 |
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The scandal-ridden Chambers County Sheriff's Department is facing more turmoil after being accused of not providing a jail inmate with his medication, causing his death. Two investigations -- one internal and one by the Texas Rangers -- are underway in the death of 59-year-old Jerald Lynn 'Shorty' Osborn, who collapsed in his jail cell October 21 and died two days later at Bayside Community Hospital. Autopsy results are pending on Osborn, but his sister, Edna Bailey of Negreet, La., said he had been taking blood pressure medication daily for several years but had stopped in July after running out of pills. She said the jail staff refused to help him get any more. 'He kept telling me that he felt dizzy and his head hurt. I told the jail nurse, jailers, his attorney and everybody I could that he needed his medicine. I told people at least 20 times,' Bailey told the Houston Chronicle for its October 26 editions. Bailey said a doctor at the hospital told her that her brother 'probably had a massive stroke that could have been caused by not taking his blood pressure medicine.' Chambers County Sheriff Monroe Kreuzer declined to comment on the pending investigation, but his spokesman, Sgt. Mike Wheat, said jail attendants have denied medication was withheld from Osborn. 'He had been receiving it, and they asked if he wanted to go to the doctor to get more. But he refused. He said he was feeling fine,' Wheat said. In July, the Chambers County Jail was cited by state inspectors for keeping inadequate medication logs, but those issues had been corrected when the jail received a clean report on Oct. 17. 'After the July inspection, they tried to double check everybody and ask if they needed to see the doctor, but he never did,' said Wheat. 'Osborn told them that he was feeling OK. All he asked for was Tylenol for a headache.' Any of the jail's 123 inmates can see a doctor, if necessary, by filling out a medical slip, he said. Bailey said the sheriff's officers are 'lying to cover their behinds.' Osborn, a commercial fisherman from Oak Island, had been awaiting trial on a charge of indecency with a child since November 2001, his sister said. The sheriff's department over the last two years has been under pressure from multiple investigations. Recent problems include three white deputies indicted on charges of busting a black man on a bogus arrest and a female deputy indicted on charges of having sex with an inmate. |
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