WACO—A U. S. District Judge said last Wednesday he will probably reduce the number of defendants in a lawsuit filed by a former Milam County Jail inmate from 10 to three.
Judge Alan Albright—after an in-person and by-phone status hearing on the suit filed by Rockdale resident John L. Robertson—indicated the remaining defendants would be sheriff’s department employees Jonathan Mendoza and Joshua Hughes and former captain/jail supervisor Katrina Douglas.
If that is the case, defendants to be removed from the litigation are the late Sheriff David Greene, District Attorney Bill Torrey, Chief Deputy Sheriff (now sheriff) Chris White, jail physician Dr. Stuart Yoffe, jail nurse Stephanie Vargas, Capt. Ryan Blankenmeyer and sheriff’s department employee Cindy McBee.
Milam County is also named as an entity,
CHARGE—Robertson had claimed he suffered two weeks of partial paralysis from the waist down and was now personally disabled due to treatment at the hands of the sheriff’s department and failure to receive proper medical treatment.
He also claimed he lost a tooth.
Robertson also alleged “retaliation” from the sheriff and prosecutor by extending his stay in the county jail.
The lawsuit alleges Mendoza injured Robertson’s back during a 2016 jail incident and that Mendoza, McBee, and Hughes denied him medical attention for 24 hours.
It further alleges Vargas said Robertson was faking his injuries and that Vargas and Dr. Yoffe initially failed to monitor or treat Robertson’s blood pressure condition until receiving a letter from his attorney a year later. The suit quotes a 2017 letter from Clevenger to Torrey maintaining the DA’s subsequent filing of a motion to revoke probation “appears to be retaliatory.”
It alleges the county, Greene, White and Douglas “did not adequately train or supervise personnel.”
RESPONSE—The county’s response maintained Robertson failed to state a plausible claim to which relief could be granted by the state.
J. Eric Magee of Austin, representing the county, issued a general denial of all issues and maintained the officials “were engaged in the exercise of discretionary duties and acted within the course and scope of their duties as law enforcement officers...with objectively reasonable expectations that their conduct was reasonable, lawful and necessary in light of all attendant circumstances.”
NEXT STEPS—Judge Albright did not officially drop the seven defendants from the case last Wednesday, but could do so at another hearing, which has not yet been set.
Attorney Ty Clevenger, representing Robertson, indicated if the judge follows through, Clevenger will request procedures enabling him to file an appeal to restore the other defendants.
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