Update - Harris County Will Pay $400k to Inmate Trapped for Weeks in Feces-Covered Jail Cell
Months before Adrian Garcia resigned as Harris County Sheriff and officially entered the crowded Houston mayoral race, photos surfaced showing Terry Goodwin trapped inside a bug-infested cell at the Harris County jail. There were mounds of trash and feces clogging the toilet, sink and shower drain.
We later learned jailers had confined Goodwin to those foul conditions for “several weeks,” something Garcia knew nothing about until a whistleblower tipped off KTRK and the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. Garcia fumed, repeatedly telling reporters he was “damn mad” about what had happened on his watch. Ultimately, the Harris County District Attorney's Office filed charges of falsifying government records, a felony, against the second- and third-shift supervisors on Goodwin's unit (curiously enough, the first-shift sergeant on the unit was never charged), and heads rolled at the sheriff's office. Shortly before retiring, Garcia fired six jail supervisors (including the two already under criminal indictment), suspended 29 jail employees without pay and demoted one jail commander. The chief deputy overseeing jail operations resigned.
It's unclear how that kind of baggage might affect Garcia's run for mayor. But we do know the impact the Goodwin affair will have on Harris County taxpayers: $400,000.
After briefly meeting in executive session Tuesday morning, Harris County commissioners voted unanimously to settle “claims against the county made by Terry Goodwin concerning conditions in the Harris County jail” for $400,000. It's unclear exactly what type of legal threat presaged the near half-million-dollar settlement – it doesn't appear Goodwin had yet filed any legal action in either state or federal district court.
Read more: http://www.houstonpress.com/news/county-will-pay-400k-to-inmate-trapped-for-weeks-in-feces-covered-jail-cell-7480750
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