Police Mistakes Lead to Tragic Jail Death and Lawsuit Settlement
Williamson County has agreed to pay $1.25 million to settle a lawsuit over the death of Joshua McNatt, a 37-year-old man who died by suicide while in the county jail in 2021. The case shows how a jail’s own mistakes — not just an inmate’s mental health crisis — can be the direct cause of a preventable death.
When McNatt was arrested in April 2021, he told jail staff he was suicidal. He had also been diagnosed with schizophrenia, anxiety, and depression, and had been prescribed medication for those conditions — medication the lawsuit says he was never given while in custody.
McNatt was placed on suicide watch. A jail officer nonetheless dropped off a bag containing towels, a sheet, and a blanket — items with known ligature risk for someone on suicide watch. About 18 minutes later, at the next scheduled check, officers found him hanging in his cell.
The lawsuit argued that leaving a person the jail itself had identified as suicidal with tie-off points and ligature material violated basic jail standards. Of the $1.25 million settlement, Williamson County paid $355,320 directly, with the remainder covered by the county’s insurance carriers.
Not an isolated incident
This is part of a documented pattern at the Williamson County Jail. The county paid $1.6 million in April 2021 to settle a lawsuit over the death of inmate Daniel McCoy, and $500,000 in October 2022 to settle a separate lawsuit over the death of inmate Patrick Dupre. Taken together, these cases point to a recurring failure to follow suicide-watch and medical-care protocols for inmates the jail already knew were at risk.
Cases like these underscore how important it is for jail staff to take mental health disclosures seriously and follow established safety protocols. When they don’t, the consequences can be fatal — and the resulting claims involve both wrongful death law and, where a known risk was ignored, civil rights claims for deliberate indifference to a serious medical need.
If a loved one was harmed or died in custody
If you or someone you know has been mistreated by police or jail staff, or has lost a loved one due to a jail’s failure to follow its own safety protocols, call the Traub Law Office at (512) 246-9191 or contact us online for a free, confidential consultation.
About Andrew Traub
