Mom wakes from 2-month coma shackled to bed, accused of killing son, TX suit says
A Texas woman is suing after she says she was wrongfully accused of causing her 5-year-old son's death.
The lawsuit was filed against the Baytown Police Department and several officers May 16.
McClatchy News reached out to the department for comment May 21 but did not immediately hear back.
The legal action stems from a fatal car crash that left the woman severely injured and in a coma, and her son dead.
On July 8, 2020, the woman was driving to the beach with her son and a friend when they were struck by a Chevy Silverado, according to the lawsuit.
The woman, her son, the friend and the driver of the truck were all flown to a hospital, the civil complaint said.
The 5-year-old boy was the only one to die, the lawsuit said.
The woman fell into a coma and when she woke up nearly two months later, she was shackled to the bed with handcuffs, according to the lawsuit.
'I remember waking up someone saying … wake up,'' she told KPRC. 'I asked, 'Why am I handcuffed?' ... Then he said, 'You're being charged with manslaughter.''
The woman said in court filings that officers fabricated evidence and conspired against her to bring charges forth.
Contradicting 'evidence'
In a report that's used to detail probable cause necessary to file criminal charges, an officer said there were witnesses who saw the woman speeding and running a red light, the lawsuit said. However, after the report was filed for the district attorney, the officer changed his story and said there were no witnesses, according to the complaint.
The same officer accused the woman of having 'an alcoholic smell to her breath' at the time of the accident, according to the complaint. However at the hospital, another officer asked staff what the woman's blood alcohol content was, and they said it was 'point zero zero,' the lawsuit said.
Despite having no alcohol in her system, the officers 'fabricated evidence' and 'falsified records' to falsely charge her, according to the lawsuit.
On July 9, 2020, one officer noted in an affidavit that the driver of the Chevy told them 'his version' of events and that is what established probable cause to charge the woman, the lawsuit said. However, police body camera footage showed that the driver never described anything about the crash and never implicated the woman, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit also said some police body camera footage from the incident went 'missing' or was 'destroyed.'
On May 19, 2023, the charges against the woman were dismissed.
However, by then, she had suffered great damage from the false allegations.
'I still wasn't grieving the way I needed to. I was more focused on, I'm looking at 20 years,' the woman told KPRC.
In addition to being 'severely injured' from the crash, the woman said she woke up in the hospital in police custody. She was considered a Jane Doe in the hospital, her family wasn't allowed to visit her or get updates on her health, and the day she got out of the hospital she was escorted to jail and had to post a $90,000 bond, the lawsuit said.
For the three years she was fighting the criminal case, she couldn't drive, find a job, get medical insurance to help with the cost of her recovery and endured 'pure, unimaginable hell,' the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit is asking for an undetermined amount in damages, but she said it is about more than the money.
'My purpose in this was not and will never be for money. And I know people. I know that's what people are going to say. It's not. I want people aware of what does and will and can happen. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy,' she told KPRC.
Baytown is about a 30-mile drive east from Houston.
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