Houston Sheriff Fires Six, Suspends Dozens Over Treatment of Mentally Ill Inmate
HOUSTON, April 25 (UPI) — Two sergeants and four supervisors at the county jail were fired and 29 others were suspended without pay for allegedly leaving a mentally ill inmate unattended for weeks to live in his own feces and surrounded by bugs.
Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia announced Friday that among those fired are two sergeants who were indicted on charges they tampered with the books to indicate they had appropriately cared for Terry Goodwin, who was booked into the jail on a marijuana charge while on probation. The 29 suspended received punishments ranging from one to 10 days, with three days the average. Many of those suspended received punishment for not reporting the incident.
In addition, the major overseeing the building where Goodwin was held was demoted to a lieutenant, and Chief Deputy Fred Brown, who oversees jail operations, agreed to resign.
“This is an issue that needed action,” Garcia said at a press conference. “People should have followed up and followed through.”
Goodwin was booked into the jail in March 2013 on a marijuana-possession charge. The drug charge was dismissed, but he was kept in jail for violation of probation on a five-year-old burglary charge. In June 2013, Goodwin allegedly punched a detention officer and was charged with assault. In October 2013, jail compliance officers found Goodwin in his cell in a tattered uniform, his toilet clogged and food containers crawling with insects. It took a year before the sheriff’s office opened an investigation into the case, and only after a local TV station started asking questions.
Officials said they don’t know how long Goodwin was locked in the cell, but estimate it was “several weeks.” Jailers told officials he was isolated because he was notoriously violent.
State Senator Rodney Ellis called Goodwin’s case “the worst incident of abuse in a jail in Texas in probably the last 10 years.”
Goodwin’s mother, Mashell Lambert, expressed frustration and anger over the situation.
“But my hand to my God, I will not stop, I will not stop,” she said. “I will keep my foot on them and I will fight for justice for my baby. He didn’t deserve this. He is not an animal. He is a human being.”
