Date Set for Inmate’s Death Trial

GREGG COUNTY — A trial date is set in federal court for a lawsuit in which a mother claims her son died because he was denied his prescription drugs while an inmate at the Gregg County Jail. According to the Longview News-Journal, jury selection is Feb. 9 in Marshall. Betty Madewell seeks unspecified monetary damages in the March 2013 death of her 51-year-old son, Bobby Joe Madewell Jr. Betty Madewell claims the county denied her son prescriptions for Xanax and hydrocodone. The county, which has since amended its jail drug policy to be wider, denies Madewell�s claims.

In another federal case, the court has set a jury trial Dec. 9 in a lawsuit filed by a former Gregg County Jail inmate who says jail personnel were indifferent to his claims of pain that led to a colon operation. Harold Hagler said he complained about stomach pain in August 2011 almost four months after he had been jailed.