Lonnetta Johnson
Lonnetta Johnson was 41 and struggled with serious mental illness, her family says; they have sued over her death and are represented by civil rights attorney Dean Malone. The Harrison County sheriff's office said she died on January 13, 2022, after staff found her struggling to breathe during a welfare check at the Harrison County Jail in Marshall, Texas, and took her to a hospital, and it attributed her death to a heart attack. A Texas Rangers investigation, as reported by Bolts, found she had been kept on suicide watch for more than two weeks in a cell without a mattress and had sat on the floor for hours before jailers entered. Her family's lawsuit is pending.
Cause of death, as reported: Died of illness (disputed; neglect alleged). The sheriff's office said she died of a heart attack, while a Rangers investigation found jailers kept her on suicide watch in a cell without a mattress for over two weeks and let her sit on the floor for hours before entering, and her family's lawsuit is pending.
Reported by: Harrison County Sheriff's Office (the agency that held her); Texas Department of Public Safety Rangers (outside investigators).
Lawsuit: Her family filed a lawsuit over her death at the Harrison County Jail, and it was pending in the reporting.