A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against a doctor accused of neglecting a woman who gave birth alone in her Tarrant County Jail cell.
Chasity Congious has intellectual disabilities and multiple serious mental health diagnoses, according to court records. She gave birth unattended in the Tarrant County Jail in 2020, and her daughter, Zenorah, died in the hospital 10 days later.
Congious' family received $1.2 million in a lawsuit against Tarrant County, the largest settlement in county history. After that settlement, U.S. District Court Judge Reed O鈥機onnor allowed Congious鈥� mother to sue Dr. Aaron Ivy Shaw, the medical director at the Tarrant County Jail at the time Congious was incarcerated.
On Tuesday, O鈥機onnor dismissed the lawsuit. Congious鈥� legal team failed to prove Shaw was 鈥渄eliberately indifferent鈥� to her medical needs, he ruled.
鈥淭here is no doubt that this case is an abject tragedy,鈥� O'Connor wrote.
Deliberate indifference is difficult to prove, and requires a lot of evidence, O鈥機onnor wrote. Shaw would have needed to do something like deny Congious care or ignore her complaints, he wrote.
The lawsuit hinged on an email to Shaw that noted Congious was experiencing abdominal pain the day she gave birth. Previous medical evaluations determined Congious would not be able to recognize if she was having contractions and recommended induced labor for her, according to court documents.
The court had previously dismissed the lawsuit against Shaw, but O鈥機onnor brought it back after Congious鈥� attorney produced that email. That email was a warning Congious was likely in labor and Shaw did nothing about it, her legal team argued.
Shaw鈥檚 lawyers countered the doctor never saw the email. It was a Sunday, Shaw was not working, and day-to-day care in the jail was delegated to his medical staff, his team wrote in a March 31 filing.
鈥淒r. Shaw was not able to personally treat鈥攐r even stay specially informed about鈥攅very inmate in the infirmary,鈥� his attorneys wrote.
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