$2.4 Million Settlement Reached After Elderly Pretrial Detainee Strangled by Cellmate in San Antonio Jail
Texas’ Bexar County agreed on April 22, 2024, to pay $2.4 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of Curtis Raymond Smith, 66, who was killed just hours after his arrest by fellow pretrial detainee Mark Anthony Wong at the county lockup in San Antonio.
Police encountered Smith on August 21, 2021, after receiving a call about a man wandering a street. While conducting their welfare check, it appeared to them that Smith was intoxicated. A standard check found that he also had an outstanding warrant for assault. He was arrested and booked into the Bexar County Jail, where he was placed in a holding cell.
Already in the cell were Wong, 52, and an unnamed third detainee who was also male but wearing women’s clothing. None of the detainees had yet been issued jail clothes. Smith was wearing a bandana, which Wong then used to fatally strangle him, taking a sock from the third detainee and stuffing it into the corpse’s mouth.
After they discovered the murder, guards moved Wong to another holding cell with other pretrial detainees—one of whom Wong also attacked, biting his nose so hard that he required hospitalization. Wong was subsequently charged with Smith’s murder, but he was found incompetent to stand trial in January 2022 and committed to a state psychiatric hospital.
On August 2, 2023, Constitutional rights lawyer Dean Malone filed a federal civil rights complaint on behalf of Smith’s estate against Bexar County, alleging Fourteenth Amendment violations. Specifically, the complaint blamed Smith’s death on the jail’s failure to properly classify and segregate detainees, noting that Wong was clearly mentally ill and had homicidal tendencies; guards’ failure to conduct periodic cell checks was also blamed.
The parties then proceeded to reach their settlement agreement. Under its terms, $100,000 was paid to Smith’s estate and another $1.15 million each to his daughters, Robin and Sarah. The amount included fees and costs for Malone. Smith’s “children are glad to bring this case to a resolution,” Malone said, adding that he hoped the lawsuit had “gained the attention of those who can make changes in the Bexar County Jail.”
“No reasonable person would have put Curtis into that situation,” the attorney said. “Locking Curtis into a cell with Mr. Wong would almost certainly result in serious injury or death, and that is exactly what happened. Curtis paid the ultimate price.” See: Smith v. Bexar Cty., USDC (N.D. Tex.), Case No. 5:23-cv-00948.
Additional source: KSAT
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Related legal case
Smith v. Bexar Cty.
| Year | 2024 |
|---|---|
| Cite | USDC (N.D. Tex.), Case No. 5:23-cv-00948 |
| Level | District Court |
| Conclusion | Settlement |