Dallas County settles TCRP suit over woman who died in jail

By KEVIN KRAUSE
The Dallas Morning News

Dallas County commissioners voted Tuesday to settle two federal jail neglect lawsuits for close to a half-million dollars.

County officials say the lawsuits are the last major legal claims related to prior conditions in the jail system, which were described a few years ago by federal investigators as being dangerous to inmates’ well-being.

As a result of the settlements, the family of former inmate Rosie Sims will receive $250,000, and former inmate Bruce A. McDonald will receive $190,000, minus legal expenses.

Sims, 60, who was mentally ill, died in the Dallas County jail in 2005.

Her family filed a wrongful death lawsuit, claiming she died of pneumonia after guards and a nurse refused to take her to the infirmary.

Sims, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, spent more than a year and a half in the jail awaiting trial before her death.

She didn’t receive medical treatment or “even a routine physical examination” during that time, according to the lawsuit. The guards found Ms. Sims lying on the floor in her own waste after she collapsed in her cell but didn’t take her to be examined, the suit said.

The story of Sims’ lifelong struggle with schizophrenia and her treatment while in custody were told in a series of articles in The Dallas Morning News in 2006.

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TCRP Press Release

DALLAS COUNTY PAYS $250,000 TO MENTALLY ILL WOMAN’S FAMILY IN FEDERAL WRONGFUL DEATH LAWSUIT

Rosie Sims was Denied Health Care for Over a Year in the Dallas County Jail

DALLAS, TX — Dallas County has agreed to pay Tosha Sims Lee, Melissa Lomack and Archie Sims, Jr., $250,000 to resolve a lawsuit filed after their mother, Rosie Sims, died in the Dallas County Jail. Mrs. Sims suffered for most of her adult life from bipolar schizophrenia, and died in the jail in 2005 from untreated pneumonia. The Department of Justice cited Mrs. Sims as an example of a “preventable death” during its review of conditions in the jail.

“No amount of money can replace Mrs. Sims in the hearts of her family,” said Scott Medlock, Prisoners’ Rights Program Director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, which represented the family. “They’re happy to begin putting this tragedy behind them, and encouraged the County is now taking the medical care provided to prisoners in the jail seriously.” Shortly after Mrs. Sims’ suit was filed, the County and the Department of Justice agreed to make extensive improvements to the medical care prisoners are provided.

Mrs. Sims died while awaiting trial after being found incompetent to stand trial and spending time in a state mental hospital. She had never been given a physical in the year and a half she spent in the jail, and guards failed to take her to the infirmary when she collapsed the night of her death.

“My mom shouldn’t have died in the jail,” said Tosha Sims Lee, Mrs. Sims’ youngest daughter. Mrs. Sims Lee, a former Parkland Hospital police officer, explained “This was never about the money. We just wanted to make sure improvements were made so other families don’t have to go through what we suffered, and remind the County everyone in the jail is someone’s loved one.”

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Thanks again for all that you and TCRP has done on behalf of mom and our family. You will never know the amount of gratitude and thanks just does not seem like enough.

Miracles & Blessings…
TOSHA M. LEE