CAMERON—A Milam County Grand Jury on Thursday no-billed (refused to indict) six current and former sheriff’s department officials in connection with allegations made by a ex-county jail inmate.
No billed on charges of “official oppression” were Jonathan Mendoza, Cindy McBee, Katrina Douglas, Joshua Hughes, Michael Nowlin and Stephanie Vargas. All but Nowlin were named in a civil federal lawsuit filed in April by John L. Robertson, a former Milam County Jail inmate, who claims he suffered two weeks of partial paralysis from the waist down and is disabled due to treatment received while in custody.
At the time of the July, 2016, incidents, Douglas was a captain and jail supervisor, Mendoza, McBee, Hughes and Nowlin were jailers and Vargas was a jail nurse.
Douglas was subsequently fired and prosecuted on a separate matter.
PROBE—Prosecutor Bill Torrey said the Texas Rangers investigated the incidents and District Judge John Youngblood named attorney Kevin Capps of Brazos County was named a special prosecutor.
Youngblood told The Reporter he named a special prosecutor because Torrey is also one of the defendants in the civil suit filed by Robertson in a Waco federal district court.
The late Sheriff David Greene, current Sheriff Chris White (then chief deputy), inmate physician Dr. Stuart Yoffe, Sheriff’s Dept. Captain Dave Blankenmeyer and Milam County as an entity were also named as defendants.
DISTRICT—Youngblood said the investigation was into the same allegations, but the no-bills were in state district court.
He noted the federal case is a civil matter and seeks damages. Last week the federal judge presiding in the civil suit said he was considering reducing the number of defendants in that case to three.
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