Tarrant DA asks family of woman who died in county jail to withdraw request for autopsy
The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office asked the family of Chasity Bonner to withdraw a request for her autopsy report, citing an ongoing criminal investigation, according to an email shared with the Star-Telegram.
Bonner died in the Tarrant County jail in May. The Tarrant County medical examiner issued the results of her autopsy report last week. It concluded that the 35-year-old died of natural causes: atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, or clogged arteries.
“Please be advised that due to an ongoing criminal investigation, there is an objection to the release of the reports by the law enforcement agency/prosecutor,” the email from the Criminal District Attorney’s Office states.
Bonner’s aunt Pamela Taylor requested the autopsy report. She received the email on Friday. Bonner’s mother LaMonica Bratton shared the email with the Star-Telegram on Monday.
A Criminal District Attorney’s Office spokesperson said the Sheriff’s Office is investigating Bonner’s death.
Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Robbie Hoy said that the department’s Criminal Investigations Division investigates all in-custody deaths.
“All our investigations are ‘criminal investigations’ even if our investigation shows that there is no criminal activity,” he said in an email.
However, after inquiring about the email, the Star-Telegram received a similar email from the office’s records division asking that it also withdraw its request for Bonner’s autopsy report. The Star-Telegram denied the request.
Unanswered questions
Bratton has had a difficult time getting information or records regarding her daughter’s death.
Technical problems and an administrative backlog caused her several headaches last week after the medical examiner published Bonner’s cause of death on Tuesday.
The funeral home that performed the memorial service said the issuance of her death certificate took much longer than the usual 48 hours. The death certificate was ready late Friday afternoon, and Bratton was able to pick it up on Saturday. A representative from the medical examiner’s office said the delay was due to a backlog of cases and low staffing.
There was also an issue with the medical examiner’s website. A technical issue arising from a database change made it appear as though Bonner’s manner and cause of death had been reverted to “Pending.”
Bratton was satisfied with the explanation of a technical glitch, but finding out on Monday that there would be another hurdle in her quest to get information about her daughter’s last moments just added to the frustration and heartbreak she has felt since May.
“I’m not understanding why all the running around and complications I’m going through trying to get information and why I haven’t been contacted on anything as far as an investigation,” she said.
The email created another unanswered question for Bonner’s family, who say they have had no communication with the agencies involved.
They had expected the autopsy report to conclude her death had been due to an overdose of an opioid drug like fentanyl, since the Sheriff’s Office press release announcing her death said that John Peter Smith Hospital medical staff had administered two doses of Narcan when attempting to save her life. Narcan is a brand name of naloxone, a nasal spray used to counter opioid overdoses.
But JPS records do not match up with that statement. The date May 27, 2024 — the day Bonner died — does not appear on a list of all naloxone applications administered by JPS staff to people in custody of the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office that the Star-Telegram received through an open records request.
Bratton has retained the services of attorney Daryl Washington, who is also representing the family of Anthony Johnson Jr. in a lawsuit against Tarrant County related to his death in the county jail in April. The medical examiner ruled Johnson’s death a homicide.
The Sheriff’s Office and other departments are deliberately trying to sidestep giving Bratton the information she seeks, Washington said.
“They’re going to always hide behind the fact that there’s a current investigation that’s taking place,” he said. “But at this point, it makes no sense for the family not to have this information to know what happened to their daughter.”
Law enforcement agencies often attempt to withhold information when they might be held responsible for a death, he said.
“They’re hoping that this just goes away, and it’s not going to go away,” Washington said. “Her death is problematic. They’re trying to cover this up.”
Stalling is “the name of the game” when law enforcement agencies do not want to release information in cases like this, according to Krishnaveni Gundu, executive director of Texas Jail Project.
“We see that all the time: keep stalling and say there’s an ongoing investigation,” she said, adding that agencies usually hope to wait out the two-year statute of limitations on filing a lawsuit in an in-custody death case.
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