Dexter Barry Died Just Days After Jail Officials Withheld His Vital Medication

Dexter Barry was arrested final November following a dispute with a neighbor. 5 days later, he was lifeless, after jail officers refused to provide him needed medicine for his coronary heart transplant.

In line with The Tributary, a information outlet based mostly in Jacksonville, Florida, Barry was arrested on November 18, after a neighbor reported him to the police for allegedly threatening to “beat him up” following an prolonged dispute over Wi-Fi. Whereas the 2 by no means bodily fought, Barry was nonetheless arrested on a easy assault cost.

Throughout his time in police custody, Barry—who had acquired a coronary heart transplant in October 2020—ceaselessly insisted that he wanted to take particular day by day medicines to forestall his physique from rejecting his new coronary heart. In line with physique digital camera footage of the incident, Barry informed one police officer at the very least seven instances that he wanted this medicine to outlive. 

When Barry appeared in courtroom the morning after his arrest, courtroom transcripts present that he as soon as once more requested entry to his anti-rejection medicine.

“I’m on medicine,” Barry informed Decide Gilbert Feltel. “I simply had a coronary heart transplant, and I have not taken my medication all day since I’ve been locked up, and I take rejection medicines for my coronary heart so my coronary heart will not reject it, and I am virtually two years out…. And the drugs that I’m taking, it is like 30-day prescription that is like $2,400.”

“OK. This is what I’ll do, Mr. Dexter,” replied Feltel. “I’m going to easily set a bond in your case of 503 and add the extra situation of no violent sufferer contact.” Whereas Barry was launched on November 20, his son and a lawyer for the household say that Barry by no means acquired his medicine whereas in jail. By the point he was launched, he had missed at the very least 5 doses.

Regardless of resuming his medicine, Barry’s well being declined over the subsequent few days, and he died on November 23, simply three days after being launched. A pathologist employed by Barry’s household reported that his reason behind dying was his physique’s rejection of his coronary heart transplant.

Andrew Bonderud, the household’s lawyer, speculated that jail officers did not acquire Barry’s medicine as a consequence of its price. “Information from jail will seemingly present they made a notice of it,” Bonderud informed The Tributary. “[The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO)] acknowledged it is an especially costly medicine and the way disgusting if it seems that this was a enterprise determination for the JSO, that they might relatively not pay for the medicine. They’d relatively threat dying over a enterprise determination. It is probably the most outrageous instances I’ve ever seen on this metropolis of JSO misconduct.”

Whereas the pathologist declined guilty Barry’s dying solely on jail officers’ refusal to acquire his needed medicine, it is clear that JSO officers had been, at finest, reckless with Barry’s well being—and at worst, contributed to his avoidable dying.

“The police officer might’ve gone inside and received his medicine,” Barry’s son informed The Tributary. “This man is telling you, my coronary heart wants these meds. A two-minute stroll would’ve saved his life.”