Family of man who died in Tarrant jail demands commissioners seek sheriff's removal
The family of a man who died in the Tarrant County Jail last December sent a letter to Tarrant County commissioners on Saturday asking them to petition for a trial to remove Sheriff Bill Waybourn from his post.
Mason Yancy, 31, died in the jail on Dec. 27, 2024, from what the medical examiner later ruled to be a pulmonary thromboembolism, or a blood clot in the lungs.
Members of Yancy's family told the Star-Telegram that they believe the medical examiner's ruling confirmed their theory that Yancy was not given medication for his diabetes while in custody. Diabetes increases the risk for blood clots, according to the American Heart Association.
Yancy's family is demanding that Tarrant County commissioners create an agenda item and hold a vote on seeking Waybourn's removal, according to a news release. The family cited a Texas local government code that creates a process via trial by a jury in which an elected official such as a sheriff can be removed in cases of incompetence or official misconduct, the statement reads. The legal process would begin with a county resident filing a petition to be reviewed by a district court judge, according to the Chapter 87 law.
At a January commissioners' meeting, tensions erupted during a briefing about recent deaths in the jail, including Yancy's. A group of Second Amendment activists attended the Jan. 14 meeting to join calls for Waybourn's resignation, in an episode that ended with two arrests, the Star-Telegram previously reported.
At that meeting, Yancy's brother Darren told commissioners that the fault for the jail deaths lies with Waybourn.
'The challenge we have is you've got a number of deaths under various employees since 2017 that keep occurring, and there's one man at the top, and that's Bill Waybourn,' he said.
Waybourn told commissioners at that January meeting that Mason Yancy came to the jail with 'medical issues' and was seen by medical staff nine times in the four days that he was incarcerated before his death. 'He was in a cell seeing two nurses when he collapsed,' Waybourn said. 'Life saving stuff was taking place immediately, within very few seconds. … I think the takeaway is that all protocols were followed by Tarrant County Sheriff's Office personnel.'
When asked by County Judge Tim O'Hare about reports that Yancy did not receive the medication he needed to survive, Waybourn said there is 'no evidence' to support those allegations.
In November, Waybourn briefed commissioners on a federal report on the Tarrant County Jail and called it a 'Cadillac model of a jail.'
Yancy's family also sent a letter Saturday to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, asking him to seek the removal of Brandon Wood, the executive director of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, according to the statement. The executive director is chosen by the nine members of the commission, who are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate, according to state law.
The Sheriff's Office and the Commission on Jail Standards did not immediately respond Saturday to requests for comment on the family's demands.
A Star-Telegram investigation found that the Commission on Jail Standards was not in compliance with the Sandra Bland Act, a 2017 state law that requires the commission to appoint independent investigators in jail death cases. Instead, sheriff's offices statewide were allowed for seven years to choose which law enforcement agencies investigated their in-custody deaths.
'The whole intent of the provision in the Sandra Bland Act was to ensure that it was an independent, unbiased, objective investigation, something that the public could trust, that policymakers could trust, that it isn't self-interested the way it would be if it's an agency investigating itself,' said Michele Deitch, the director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at UT Austin and a consultant on the bill.
The commission began complying with the law almost two weeks after the Star-Telegram published its investigation.
Since the passage of the law in 2017, 70 people have died in the Tarrant County Jail.
'It is the Yancy family's position that the Texas Commission on Jail Standards is not functioning properly through Wood's directive and has allowed Waybourn to remain compliant in the face of heinous deaths such as Mason Yancy, Chasity Congious' (baby), and Anthony Johnson, Jr.,' the family's statement says.
Staff writer Cody Copeland contributed to this story.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Hillsborough County installing AEDs at 25 parks and sports complexes
The Brief Hillsborough County is installing AEDs at 23 parks and sports complexes. The AEDs were funded by the American Heart Association. The AEDs will be available for anyone to use in the event of a cardiac emergency. TAMPA, Fla. - Hillsborough County is equipping about two dozen of its parks with emergency gear in the event of a cardiac emergency. The county will install 25 AEDs, automated external defibrillators, at 23 parks and sports complexes across the county. Follow FOX 13 on YouTube What we know The American Heart Assocation funded the purchase of 25 AEDs for the Hillsborough County parks and sports complexes. The first AED has been installed at the Skyway Sports Complex. It will be one of two parks that will have two AEDs onsite, because of its size. "We're going to focus on putting these AEDs in sports complexes like this one that are very, very busy with thousands of users," Mikah Collins of Hillsborough County Parks and Recreation said. "But, we're also going to put them in our parks that are way out in the middle of nowhere, and that's going to be even more important, because it takes so long for an ambulance or first responders to get there." READ: Tampa Police get 300 new lifesaving choking devices from New York-based company The AEDs will be available for public use in the event of a cardiac emergency. The American Heart Association of Tampa Bay said if someone goes into cardiac arrest, when you call 911, dispatchers will give you a code to unlock the box containing the AED. "As soon as you open the machine, it's going to start talking, and it's going to tell you exactly what to do," Courtney Burt, the vice president of community impact with the American Heart Association of Tampa Bay, said. Burt said someone else should be performing CPR while the person is accessing the AED, and you're waiting for EMS to arrive. MORE: Tampa's SoHo braces for stormwater project amid business concerns By the numbers The American Heart Association said the first two minutes of someone going into cardiac arrest are the most important in terms of response. "CPR actually raises a person's chance of survival about two to three times," Burt said. "When we introduce an AED within that two-minute window, it can actually increase their survivability up to almost 70%." Burt said about 1,000 people a day in the U.S. have an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. She said a person's chance of surviving an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is less than 10%. "With an AED, it really probably triples your likelihood of surviving a major heart attack," Dr. Doug Ross, the chief medical officer of the AdventHealth West Florida division, said. Dig deeper Ross said an AED can be the difference between life and death. He said the machines are user-friendly and designed to be used by people who are not trained with them. READ: Week-long active threat training held with Hillsborough County deputies "Talks you through it. These are very automatic, you know," Ross said. "You turn it on, it talks you through how to put the pads on, what to do. It'll analyze the heart rhythm. And then, if you need to be shocked, then it tells you to push the button to shock." There's a growing movement to make AEDs more accessible. Governor Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 1607, which will require school districts to provide basic first aid training to certain students. It will also require every public school and charter school to have at least one AED on campus by July 1, 2027. "Not only will it help get funding and resources for schools to have the devices, but also the education related to CPR and policies that we call 'Cardiac Emergency Response Plans,'" Burt said. The new Florida law will go into effect on July 1. What's next Hillsborough County officials are installing the AEDs at the county parks and sports complexes and connecting them with 911 now. They hope the AEDs will be ready for use by August. WATCH FOX 13 NEWS: STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA: Download the FOX Local app for your smart TV Download FOX Local mobile app:Apple |Android Download the FOX 13 News app for breaking news alerts, latest headlines Download the SkyTower Radar app Sign up for FOX 13's daily newsletter
Business Wire
a day ago
- Business Wire
Astria Therapeutics to Present at Upcoming European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Annual Congress
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Astria Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq:ATXS), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing life-changing therapies for allergic and immunologic diseases, today announced that it will present four posters at the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) Annual Congress, taking place June 13-16, 2025 in Glasgow, United Kingdom. Dr. William Yang, M.D., FRCPC, FAAAAI, Managing Director and Chair, Ottawa Allergy Research Corporation, will present combined initial safety and efficacy data from the Phase 1b/2 and long-term open label trials of navenibart in a late-breaking poster presentation of poster number D1.390 titled, 'Long-term Safety and Efficacy of Navenibart in Participants with Hereditary Angioedema (HAE): Initial Combined Results from ALPHA-STAR and ALPHA-SOLAR.' The presentation will take place on Friday, June 13 in a poster session beginning at 12:00pm BST. Nikolaos Biris, Ph.D., Senior Director of Structural and Functional Biology at Astria Therapeutics, will present information on the differentiation of STAR-0310 in a presentation of poster number D1.343 titled, 'Unveiling the Underlying Mechanism of Differentiation for STAR-0310, an Anti-OX40 Antibody for Atopic Dermatitis.' The presentation will take place on Friday, June 13 in a poster session beginning at 12:00pm BST. Dr. William Lumry, M.D., Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas, will present data from the Phase 1b/2 trial of navenibart in a presentation of poster number D3.391 titled, 'Results from the ALPHA-STAR Trial, a Phase 1b/2 Single and Multiple Dose Study to Assess the Safety, Tolerability, Clinical Activity, Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics, and Immunogenicity of Navenibart in Participants with Hereditary Angioedema (HAE).' The presentation will take place on Sunday, June 15 in a poster session beginning at 12:45pm BST. Dr. Emel Aygören-Pürsün, M.D., Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany, will present information on the global Phase 3 trial of navenibart in a presentation of poster number D3.390 titled, 'ALPHA-ORBIT: a Phase 3, Multicenter, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Navenibart in Participants with Hereditary Angioedema (HAE).' The presentation will take place on Sunday, June 15 in a poster session beginning at 12:45pm BST. About Astria Therapeutics: Astria Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company, and our mission is to bring life-changing therapies to patients and families affected by allergic and immunologic diseases. Our lead program, navenibart (STAR-0215), is a monoclonal antibody inhibitor of plasma kallikrein in clinical development for the treatment of hereditary angioedema. Our second program, STAR-0310, is an investigational monoclonal antibody OX40 antagonist in clinical development for the treatment of atopic dermatitis. Learn more about our company on our website, or follow us on Instagram @AstriaTx and on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Pa. pharmacists demand state action to regulate PBMs, curb pharmacy closures
A shuttered independent pharmacy in Harrisburg. (Capital-Star photo by Vincent DiFonzo) Last month, pharmacists from across the state travelled to Harrisburg for an urgent meeting with lawmakers. Their goal was to communicate a simple message — pharmacies are closing at an alarming rate, eliminating one of the few places customers can receive free, unscheduled consultations with medical professionals. They warned they're being driven out of business by middlemen in the pharmaceutical supply chain called pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs. Lawmakers took aim at this problem last year by passing the Pharmacy Benefit Reform Act, which sought to decrease the costs of prescription drugs and regulate PBMs. The legislation was touted by Gov. Josh Shapiro as an example of successful bipartisan reform while he was being considered for the vice presidential nomination. Nearly a year after the law's passage, pharmacists say it has failed to prevent closures. Since January 2024, at least 200 pharmacies have closed across the state. Now, they're asking lawmakers to act again. 'The current PBM system is aptly harming our local pharmacies, jeopardizing patient access to care and threatening the very fabric of our community health infrastructure,' Victoria Elliot, CEO of the Pennsylvania Pharmacist Association, told lawmakers during the meeting last month. Pharmacy benefit managers are companies hired by insurance providers to administer prescription drug benefits of a health plan. They negotiate drug prices, decide what drugs are covered under insurance plans and reimburse pharmacies for drugs dispensed. Theoretically, PBMs secure lower drug prices for patients by streamlining communication between insurance companies, drug manufacturers and pharmacies. Pharmacy advocates insist the opposite is true — that PBMs are raising drug costs and driving them out of business through anticompetitive practices that force them to dispense prescriptions at a loss. Prescription for trouble: Pennsylvania pharmacists say PBMs are driving pharmacy closures The three largest PBMs — CVS Caremark, OptumRx and ExpressScripts — control about 80% of the market and are owned by companies that also own national pharmacy chains and insurance companies. That means pharmacies that don't agree to accept the reimbursement rates they set are likely to lose customers whose insurance plans rely on them. E. Michael Murphy, senior advisor for state government affairs at the American Pharmacists Association and assistant professor of clinical pharmacy at Ohio State University, says low dispensing and reimbursement fees paid to pharmacies by PBMs are a leading cause of closures. 'Oftentimes, when pharmacies dispense a medication for a patient, they're taking a loss on that medication, either in the reimbursement for acquiring that medication from a wholesaler or in the professional dispensing fee,' Murphy said. 'And unfortunately you can only do that for so long before the business model crumbles. That's one of the big reasons that we've seen community pharmacies closing across the country.' Murphy said community pharmacy closures not only hurt small business owners, but also impact the ability of patients to access medications as they have to travel further to pick up prescriptions. 'When a community pharmacy closes, it can have a pretty dramatic impact on the health outcomes of that community,' he said. 'There's concern that can disproportionately affect patients in more marginalized or socioeconomicly vulnerable communities.' Murphy voiced support for ensuring state agencies have the resources to enforce existing laws and regulate 'anticompetitive' PBM practices. Greg Lopes, a spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, a D.C.-based trade group that represents the country's largest PBMs, says PBMs help, not harm, Pennsylvania pharmacies. 'PBMs recognize that pharmacies provide access for patients to get drugs, so it makes no sense to blame PBMs for pharmacy closures in Pennsylvania,' said Lopes. 'PBMs aren't trying to put pharmacies out of business, in fact, PBMs are supporting community pharmacies in Pennsylvania through programs that increase reimbursement and advocating to allow them to expand the additional clinical services they can offer.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE He pointed to 'customer preferences for online options and changing demographics,' as factors driving pharmacy closures. PBM reforms passed with bipartisan support in last year's Act 77, which expanded the Pennsylvania Insurance Department's regulatory power and created new transparency requirements for PBMs operating in the state. But pharmacy advocates say the law didn't go far enough, and pharmacies are still closing at an alarming rate. Rob Frankil, executive director of the Philadelphia Association of Retail Druggists told the Capital-Star that out of approximately 225 pharmacies represented by his organization, 12 have closed since January and 25 closed in 2024. He pointed to low reimbursement as the primary cause. 'Eleven of the 12 pharmacies that my association lost this year are in Philadelphia,' he said. 'They all went out of business because they're not being paid enough for the prescriptions they're filling.' He wants legislation that addresses reimbursement rates directly. One proposal is to require PBMs to reimburse pharmacies based on the average national cost of the medication they're dispensing, plus a fee set by the state that accounts for a pharmacist's time and materials used. Neighboring West Virginia passed a similar law in 2021. A spokesperson for Shapiro, asked if the governor would support further PBM reforms, responded with a quote from the governor's February budget address, highlighting last year's PBM reform law. 'We knew it was a problem that shady middlemen could jack up the cost of prescription drugs while driving our community pharmacies out of business,' the statement said. 'So we came together to pass landmark reforms that bring transparency to how pharmacy benefit managers operate, keep more money in Pennsylvanians' pockets, and protect the small and independent pharmacies we rely on in our communities.' The primary sponsor of that PBM reform law, Rep. Jessica Benham (D-Allegheny), told the Capital-Star that further PBM reform is necessary, but said, 'We are somewhat limited on the state level with what we are able to do.' Benham added that understanding the full impact of Act 77 will take time. She noted the bill required the state Insurance Department to conduct a study on the impact on consumers and pharmacies of future legislation to set a standard dispensing fee of $10.49. They will also study the impact of patient steering and spread pricing on prescription drug costs and pharmacy access. Patient steering is a practice in which PBMs drive customers to their preferred pharmacies, often owned by the same parent company as the PBM. Spread pricing occurs when a PBM pays one price for a drug and reimburses a pharmacy less, profiting off the difference. An Insurance Department spokesperson said the study requires 'specialized expertise.' The department will procure a vendor 'to assist with the development and implementation of the study,' but have not begun this process yet. 'We will have to wait for the results to then move forward on further legislation,' Benham said. As it stands, a number of PBMs are contracted by individual Medicaid providers, and are allowed to set their own reimbursement policies. Frankil told lawmakers last month that dispensing fees can be as low as a dollar. A 2020 study commissioned by a community pharmacy advocacy group found the average cost of dispensing a prescription for a pharmacy is $12.40. One proposal Benham said she supports would have the Department of Human Services, which oversees state Medicaid, use a single PBM to administer Medicaid benefits, an action pharmacy advocates are demanding that has precedent in other states. In 2022, the Ohio Medicaid Department moved to a single PBM to administer Medicaid, with one entity overseeing prescriptions covered by Medicaid. This forced Medicaid managed care organizations to work with a single PBM contracted through the state's Medicaid Department, rather than procuring their own. A 2025 study found this move saved Ohio's Medicaid Department $140 million, saved the state $333 million in administrative costs and allowed $700 million dispensing fees to be paid to pharmacies in the two years since its implementation. Murphy, an Ohio resident, praised this move. 'Oftentimes, when I talk to pharmacists in Ohio, they'll say that Ohio Medicaid is the best and most stable source of revenue for their businesses, which is just indicative of how positive this program has rolled out,' he said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
