Lubbock, Texas – October 27, 2021
Jordan Wade Woolf committed suicide in the Lubbock County, Texas jail and was found shortly after midnight on December 6, 2019. The publicly-available custodial death report, filed by the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office, indicated that Mr. Woolf exhibited mental health problems either during the incident and/or at entry into the jail. One of Mr. Woolf’s family members retained constitutional rights attorney Dean Malone to determine what happened in the jail and which led to Jordan’s suicide.
Mr. Malone made a number of Texas Public Information Act requests, over more than a year, to the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office for information regarding Jordan’s death. The Sheriff’s Office, through the Lubbock County District Attorney’s Office, continually objected to providing evidence regarding Jordan’s death. The Sheriff’s Office, through the District Attorney’s Office, even objected to providing evidence regarding Jordan’s death after the investigation into his death had concluded.
As a result, Mr. Malone had to file a case in district court in Lubbock County, asking a court to order the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office to produce evidence regarding Jordan’s death. Only after Lubbock County fought the proceeding, through an outside law firm, and argued strenuously at the hearing that it should not have to produce the evidence, did the court order production of some evidence related to Jordan’s death.
After the court ordered production of some evidence regarding Jordan’s death, Mr. Malone attempted to obtain additional records regarding Jordan’s death from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards (“TCJS”) in Austin. The TCJS investigates every county jail death occurring in Texas. Mr. Malone made nine separate requests to the TCJS, over more than a year, for evidence regarding Jordan’s death. Even though the Lubbock County Sheriff’s office had been ordered to produce evidence regarding Jordan’s death, after the lengthy hearing in a Lubbock district court, the Lubbock County District Attorney’s Office still objected to the TCJS producing information to the family’s attorney regarding Jordan’s death. The DA’s office told the TCJS that it objected to the TCJS producing records to the family’s attorney. As a result, the TCJS wrote to Mr. Malone, “We will not release the information in question.”
Attorney Malone said, “Our law firm helps families who want to know what happened to their loved ones who die in Texas jails. It is beyond belief that our government officials refuse to produce to families and their attorneys evidence about deaths occurring in public jails. It is even more troubling when counties use the DA’s office and/or outside law firms to assist in that fight. We find it ever more common that we are forced to spend time in a hearing with a judge, asking for an order to simply obtain information for the family of a person who dies in jail. It is also beyond belief that the Lubbock County District Attorney’s Office, after the investigation into Jordan’s death concluded, and after the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office was ordered to produce evidence regarding Jordan’s death, still objected to the TCJS, an agency located in Austin, providing evidence regarding Jordan’s death. What happens in Texas jails should not be a secret, especially when an inmate dies and surviving family members want to know what happened. Our public officials should not work to hide information about jail deaths. We will keep fighting for full disclosure.”
Story courtesy of Texas Media Directory and Law Offices of Dean Malone, P.C.
KLVT News 