HOUSTON – The family of a man who died of meningitis while serving time in the Harris County Jail is asking for the U.S. Department of Justice to step in after they say critical video evidence was destroyed.
Kathryn Green, the mother of 27-year-old Patrick Green, other family members and their attorneys gathered outside the Harris County Jail Wednesday morning to call attention to a lawsuit they filed against the county.
"The bad side is the horrible void in our lives because Patrick is gone,” Green said. “Worse than that is not getting information."
Patrick Green was jailed in 2015 after he violated his probation for a drug charge.
The lawsuit filed in federal court contends he was left without medical care for two days after contracting bacterial meningitis in jail.
He died on March 24, 2015, just a few minutes shy of his 28th birthday.
Kathryn Green said she spoke to her son on the phone the Friday before his death, and that he didn’t seem like himself. She said her son called his grandmother two days later and told her he had fallen ill.
"He told my mother that his lips and fingertips were blue, and that he was very cold," she said.
According to the family’s lawsuit, attempts by fellow inmates to get him medical attention were ignored; documents suggest Green began showing symptoms “at least” by Sunday, March 22, 2015, but wasn't transported to Ben Taub Hospital until March 24, where he was pronounced dead at 11:59 p.m.
Civil rights attorney Randall Kallinen, who is representing the Green family, says surveillance video that would have shown Green asking for medical care inside the jail was destroyed, despite the family’s request to then-Sheriff Adrian Garcia and jail staff to preserve evidence.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office says the evidence requested does not exist.
"Right now there is no one in government doing anything to investigate or improve medical care at the Harris County jail, the 3rd largest jail in the United States," Kallinen wrote in a statement. "The United States Department of Justice needs to step up its regulation of the Harris County jail to prevent more tragic deaths."
Here is part of what the HCSO sent in a release:
"On June 15, 2015, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office received a request for all video and audio recordings and photographs in the “3C4” pod at 701 San Jacinto where Patrick David Green was housed from March 21, 2015 to March 25, 2015; all video and audio recordings and photographs in the “hospital,” “infirmary,” “clinic” or any other facility at 701 San Jacinto or 1200 Baker where Patrick David Green received any treatment from March 21, 2015 to March 25, 2015; and all video and audio recordings and photographs at the “dock” where EMS/Houston Fire Department arrived to load and transport Patrick David Green to Ben Taub Hospital on March 24, 2015.
No video, audio, or photographs ever existed of the described locations during the time period identified in the request. No video, audio, or photographs were destroyed. There were no cameras in the “3C4” pod at 701 San Jacinto where Patrick David Green was housed, there were no cameras in the “hospital,” “infirmary,” “clinic” or any other facility at 701 San Jacinto or 1200 Baker where Patrick David Green received any treatment, and there were no cameras at the “dock” where EMS/Houston Fire Department arrived to load and transport Patrick David Green to Ben Taub Hospital.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs were notified that no records responsive to the Public Information Act request existed by the County Attorney’s Office in June of 2015."