Harris County Sheriff’s Office/ YouTube
A new legal complaint filed in federal court Thursday alleges a Houston man’s charges were dropped 17 hours before he died in an altercation with detention officers who were attempting to escort him out of jail.
The 70-page wrongful death lawsuit filed in the Southern District of Texas details 32-year-old Alexis Cardenas’ chaotic struggle with detention officers before they pinned him to the ground and he stopped breathing. Officers noticed Cardenas was unresponsive six minutes after he stopped moving.
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The legal filing asserts that the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, which operates the county jail, has maintained a practice of using lethal force in an attempt to subdue inmates. It cites investigative reports about a pattern of jailers allegedly using force against prisoners and using restraint holds against non-threatening inmates.
The lawsuit mentions eight times Harris County has paid out settlements from county jail lawsuits — including a $2.5 million payout to the family of an inmate who died after detention officers hogtied him for longer than 10 minutes in 2015.
This year, Harris County agreed to pay $1.25 million to settle another federal lawsuit about the 2021 beating death of a special needs teen inside the Harris County Jail, records obtained by Houston Public Media show.
The new lawsuit is the second time Cardenas’ family has sought additional information surrounding his death inside the jail.
They filed a Rule 202 petition — considered a pre-lawsuit filing — in district court last year, seeking access to certain evidence and medical records about the struggle. The petition — which can be used to determine if certain claims exist before litigation — was denied because the plaintiffs didn’t present evidence that the likely benefit would outweigh the burden of producing additional depositions, according to court documents.
Narrated video footage released by the sheriff’s office shows several officers pinning Cardenas to the ground after he allegedly refused to exit and walked back toward a secure area of the jail. Officers pinned Cardenas to the ground after he backed away from the exit door and rushed into a secure area of the jail. Medical examiners ruled Cardenas’ death a homicide.
According to the lawsuit, Cardenas was being released from the jail at 1 a.m. and attempted to explain to the officers that he could not leave the jail in the middle of the night without a working cell phone or a plan to get home safely. He allegedly attempted to tell officers that his cell phone battery died.
The sheriff’s office declined to comment regarding the lawsuit.
A kiosk for inmates to charge their cell phones upon their release from the jail is located in the re-entry services area of the jail, which closes at 5 p.m. during weekdays.
“Upon information and belief, Mr. Cardenas was trying to inform the officers that his cellphone battery was dead, leaving him without a safe means of returning home at such an early hour,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed against Harris County and several detention officers involved in the altercation.
Cardenas was arrested on July 6 by Houston police officers over a decade-old traffic citation.
His family said he was suffering from a mental health crisis when he was first arrested by Houston Police Department officers on municipal charges. They said he had originally approached a police officer that day in fear for his life. According to an arrest document, Cardenas claimed he was in good health at the time of the arrest. The Houston Police Department told Houston Public Media it would take 220 business days to release body camera footage of his arrest.