JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The family of a heart transplant patient who died after a short stay in the Duval County jail in 2022 has settled a federal lawsuit over his death, according to News4JAX news partners at “The Tributary.”
The family of Dexter Barry is set to receive $300,000 as part of the settlement.
Barry’s family said the jail failed to give him the medication he needed to survive.
This case led the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office to drop its medical provider, Armor Correctional Health Services.
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Barry was arrested in November 2022 after being accused of threatening his neighbor during an argument over an internet bill. Police footage showed Barry in the back of a police car telling the officer he had to have his medication.
Barry died three days after he was released.
An autopsy confirmed his death was a cardiac arrest brought on by an autoimmune rejection. Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters dropped Armor as the jail’s medical provider in September 2023.
The National Commission on Correctional Health Care found Armor’s medical care was deficient and that staffing levels were so low that the then-corrections director asked for volunteers from the Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department to help.
The settlement is at least the second agreed to by Waters after he lobbied Jacksonville City Council members last year to enact a new law that requires all lawsuit settlement agreements involving JSO be approved by him or the city council president.
