Harris County, Texas
The family of an elderly Houston man who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and died in the Harris County Sheriff's Office's custody is demanding answers after he sustained serious head injuries during what they said was an altercation with a deputy at the Harris County Jail.
Norman Ford Hicks Sr., 72, of the 10400 block of Royal Oaks, died at 11 p.m. Jan. 22 at Ben Taub General Hospital after his children made the decision to discontinue life support. His official cause of death has not yet been released by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, where pathologists performed an autopsy on his body.
Hicks, who was on probation, had been in custody at the Harris County Jail at 1200 Baker St. since Jan. 7 after he was arrested in Oklahoma City for unknown reasons and transferred back to Harris County, said his daughter, Marie Hicks-Fields of Houston.
The altercation happened Jan. 16 at the jail, but his daughter said the sheriff's office did not notify her of the incident. On Monday she said she did not learn her father was at Ben Taub's intensive care unit until a hospital social worker called her to confirm her father's date of birth and address.
Hicks' family said on Monday that Sgt. Felipe Rivera of the Harris County Sheriff's Office Homicide Division told them Hicks had been involved in an altercation with a staff member at the jail, although the sheriff's office refused to confirm that on Monday. Doctors said Hicks suffered multiple facial fractures and severe brain trauma, said his daughter, Evangeline Hicks Campbell of Katy.
Family members who saw Hicks at the hospital before his death said they saw bruises on his head. He never regained consciousness and died five days after arriving at the hospital, they said.
Two days after the altercation, while Hicks was hospitalized and on life support, he was charged with felony offense of harassment by a person in a correctional facility after the sheriff's office filed a complaint against him with the district attorney's office. Court papers accuse Hicks of trying to harrass, alarm and assault a deputy by causing the deputy to come into contact with feces and urine.
Court papers allege the offense happened on Jan. 7, the day Hicks was booked into the county jail. It was not immediately clear why the charge was filed after he was hospitalized and on life support.
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