Jail Staff Laughed at Dying Veteran Left Strapped to Chair in Texas, Suit Says

The family of Glenn Earl Smallwood Jr., a 33-year-old U.S. Army veteran who needed immediate medical attention but was instead taken to jail and strapped to a restraint chair until he was no longer responsive, is suing over his death, according to their legal counsel.

Civil rights attorney Erik Heipt, who represents the family, said in a statement to McClatchy News that staff at the Angelina County Jail in Lufkin, Texas, ignored Smallwood’s obvious medical needs — violating their duty “to treat him with humanity.”

“Glenn Smallwood was treated as if his life did not matter,” Heipt, of Budge & Heipt PLLC law firm, said. “We are bringing this case to show that it did.”

In adulthood, Smallwood had schizoaffective disorder, according to a federal lawsuit Heipt filed April 29 on the family’s behalf. The mental health condition is considered a combination of schizophrenia and mood disorder symptoms.

Several hours before Smallwood was taken into custody on June 16, 2023, he visited The Burke Center, a mental health hospital in Lufkin, the lawsuit says.

It was clear to the facility’s staff that he needed a “higher level of care,” as Smallwood was experiencing psychosis, was hallucinating and was unmedicated, Heipt wrote in a complaint.

Staff members tried to transfer him to an inpatient hospital involuntarily, but Smallwood left the facility as they worked to secure a mental health warrant, the complaint says.

That evening, local police found Smallwood in a Lufkin neighborhood, according to the lawsuit. Two officers who saw Smallwood “behaving bizarrely” should’ve connected him to the care he needed, given the warrant, the filing says.

But the officers arrested him on a charge of public intoxication and took him to the county jail, according to the lawsuit.

In the entryway leading into the jail, guards put him in a restraint chair and fastened the straps, the complaint says. Then Smallwood began vomiting.

He continued to vomit and faded “in and out of consciousness” as the guards tightened his restraints, the complaint says.

Officers’ body-camera footage provided to McClatchy News captured his initial detainment up until he was restrained and taken into custody at the jail.

The footage shows officers laughing and smiling once Smallwood starts retching, then throws up, the lawsuit notes.

His brother, John Smallwood, said in a statement to McClatchy News that jail staff “treated him worse than an animal.”

“It’s disturbing to me that jail guards were joking and laughing when my brother was strapped in a chair, vomiting and losing consciousness.”

After officers restrained Glenn Smallwood, they wheeled him into the jail’s booking area and brought him into a detox holding cell, the complaint says.

An entry-level nurse found him “limp and unconscious” in his chair in the cell, according to the filing. He didn’t wake when the nurse tried a sternum rub, a technique to test his responsiveness, the complaint says.

The nurse and officers failed to get him emergency care as he was dying, according to the lawsuit.

He was left in the restraint chair for nearly two hours until he died, according to Heipt.

Smallwood was a father of three children, whom he adored, his brother told McClatchy News.

His family has brought the lawsuit against Angelina County, a lieutenant with the county sheriff’s office and the jail’s medical provider, Southern Health Partners. The jail’s nurse, who worked for the organization, is also named as a defendant.

Angelina County Sheriff Tom Selman said in an emailed statement to McClatchy News on April 30 that he “met with Mr. Smallwood’s family personally after he passed away and they are good people.”

“I believe our attorneys would be disappointed in me if I made any statements regarding the case,” Selman added.

Southern Health Partners didn’t immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment April 29.

According to the lawsuit, an “in-custody death investigation” was completed. The outcome is unclear.

Smallwood’s life and military service

Smallwood was born in Galveston and served in the Army National Guard while living in Utah, before he returned to Texas, Heipt wrote in the lawsuit.

Smallwood lived in Huntington, a city in Angelina County, with his two younger children and their mother the month he died, according to Heipt.

John Smallwood told McClatchy News that his brother “was a good person with a warm personality.”

“He was the kind of man who would do things for other people without asking for anything in return,” John Smallwood said.

He described his brother as intelligent and said he was a fan of books and comics, as well as “playing nerdy games.”

“He loved God, family, and our country,” John Smallwood said.

Family wants justice

After Glenn Smallwood left the Burke Center on June 16, 2023, it’s believed he “self-medicated” with methamphetamine before his arrest, Heipt wrote in the complaint.

Upon arriving at the jail, Smallwood “was paranoid, confused, sweating, shaking, unsteady, and bleeding from his mouth,” the complaint says.

The complaint says Smallwood was put in a restraint chair as part of jail policy for detainees suspected to be intoxicated.

“Whatever conceivable justification the jail guards had for initially strapping him into the restraint chair evaporated once he began vomiting and losing consciousness,” Heipt told McClatchy News.

Southern Health Partners, according to Heipt, is largely to blame for the jail nurse’s accused failure to get Smallwood medical help.

If the nurse and jail guards intervened, he wouldn’t have died, the lawsuit argues.

Several lawsuits have been brought against the company, including a civil case in which a former inmate accused Southern Health Partners of medical negligence, resulting in a $950,000 settlement in Aiken County, South Carolina, in October 2023, WRDW-TV reported.

Heipt said the Smallwood family wants justice.

The filing demands a jury trial, an unspecified amount in damages and other forms of relief.

John Smallwood told McClatchy News his “brother is not the first person to die in that jail.”

“I want to try to make sure he’s the last.”

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