Wrongful death case ends with closure, if not justice

Guest blog post by William F. Patrick

It has been nearly seven years since Rhonda Newsome, 50, died in the Anderson County Jail. For every day of these years, Newsome’s family has been seeking one thing: justice.

Newsome, 50, died June 15, 2018, in a holding cell, three months after she was jailed on assault charges stemming from a family dispute. Witnesses have stated that in the days prior to Newsome’s death from complications related to Addison’s disease, she was screaming and crying for help. Witnesses further stated jail staff ignored her pleas.

On the morning prior to Newsome’s death, at approximately 10 a.m., officials from Palestine Regional Medical Center phoned jail medical staff stating her blood tests showed “critical values,” and an immediate transport to the emergency room was necessary to save her life. Despite this, Newsome died roughly seven hours later still locked in an isolation cell in Anderson County Jail.

Addison’s disease is a chronic, but treatable illness unless symptoms are ignored. The policy which kept Newsome from necessary medical care was a death sentence, argue attorneys for Newsome’s family, Dan Scarbrough, Charles Nichols and Donald Larkin.

“The evil thing is that this disease did not need to be fatal,” Scarbrough said. “It should never have happened.”

Newsome’s family agreed.

“I wouldn’t let a dog die the way they let my mother die,” Newsome’s daughter, Amber Ford, 37, added.

Multiple investigations conducted by the Texas Rangers, while finding no criminal wrongdoing, found clear evidence of neglect. Shortly after the release of the Rangers reports, Ford, her brother Regan Kimbrough, and Newsome’s parents Donald and Ann Newsome filed a wrongful death civil suit, naming as defendants Anderson County; TAKET Holdings; registered nurse Tim Green; Dr. Adam Corley; jail Captain Todd Choate; jail guards Robin Jones; Jonathan Strong; Jessica Carpenter; Alicia Wilson; Matthew Wickersham; Travis Wesson; Dakota Hughes and Anderson County Sheriff Greg Taylor, both individually and in his role as sheriff.

The case was originally dismissed when the judge granted all defendants qualified immunity. When informing the lawyers for Newsome’s family of his decision, the judge opined, “This was just a sick lady.”

Nichols and his team appealed the dismissal, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. On May 22, 2024, the ruling came back, successfully reversing most of the qualified immunity rulings.

“A jury could conclude,” the Justices for the Appellate Court stated in their ruling, “failure to order emergency medical care for a detainee in need of hospitalization constituted a refusal of care.”

This refusal of medical care, according to testimony by a former jail employee, stemmed from then-Sheriff Greg Taylor’s unwritten policy to release pre-trial detainees in medical crisis on personal recognizance bonds rather than pay the state-mandated cost of their hospitalization, or risk them dying on jail grounds. In an affidavit, the same former jail employee recalled a
conversation with Nurse Green, a registered nurse contracted by the county, that suggested Green deliberately delayed sending Newsome to the hospital due to restrictions placed upon him by then-Sheriff Taylor. This policy, Nichols said, is a fourth amendment violation; a violation which the Court ruled was too lacking in evidence to put before a court. Again, the Court of
Appeals agreed with the merits of the Plaintiff’s case; the family’s quest for justice had resumed.

Unfortunately, the wheels of justice tend to spin rather slowly. A case like this requires voluminous evidence, expert testimony, court backlogs and discovery disputes to name only a few challenges facing Newsome’s family and their lawyers. Because of these delays, parties and witnesses often move or even die, and adjustments must be made

The family of Rhonda Newsome settled out of court with the defendants for an undisclosed amount. With the stroke of a pen, family members who had agonized for years over the loss of their loved one had closure; but had justice been served?

Nichols takes a pragmatic view of the six-plus year-long case.

“Our clients are pleased because they have closure,” he said. “Lawsuits are about accountability, justice and satisfaction of clients. All are important, but client satisfaction is always preeminent.”

While pleased with his clients’ sense of closure, Scarbrough views justice in this case as unattainable.

“Nothing constitutes justice when someone dies,” Scarbrough, the attorney Newsome’s family initially approached said. “You can’t bring them back. Hopefully, by resolving this case, something like this will never happen again.”

Calls to defense attorneys and Anderson County Jail staff were not returned.