The family of a gay man who died in custody in Galveston, Texas, is seeking to find out more about why their son allegedly did not receive needed medication which eventually led to him suffering a fatal seizure.
In March, Jesse Jacobs turned himself in at a jail in Galveston as part of a 30-day sentence he had been ordered to serve for a DUI conviction. But, after being processed, medical personnel at the jail denied Jacobs the prescribed Xanax he had been taking for ten years to treat a severe anxiety disorder. A week after being denied the drug, Jacobs began to experience seizures, a known side-effect of Xanax withdrawal.
But the sheriff who oversees the jail is now refusing to turn over video from the lockup because he is afraid of the impending lawsuit which might result.
Jacob’s father, also named Jesse, said he is upset by what happened to his son:
“I’m angry. Because as far as I’m concerned, they executed my son just as sure as if they put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger.”
The young man’s mother, Diane Jacobs, said her son was worried in advance of showing up at the jail; worried that the staff might refuse to let him have his medication:
“Our son was concerned that he was not going to receive his medication. He told us, ‘Mom what will happen, if I don’t receive this?’”
Medical records from the jail clearly show that jail doctors put Jacobs on a different medication, and they also noted that he was “detoxing” from Xanax, which had been prescribed by his own doctor.
Sheriff Henry Trochesset claims Jesse Jacobs died of “natural causes,” and remarked:
“Whatever the doctor, the internal doctor said he was prescribed, was what he was given. Individuals come into the jail all the time. Some of them are taking medications that they shouldn’t be, or they say they’re suppose to be on certain medications.”
