Mother of mentally ill jail inmate blames medical director for baby's death

(CN) — The mother of a mentally ill woman whose baby died after she gave birth in her cell in Tarrant County, Texas, jail asked a Fifth Circuit panel Tuesday to revive her lawsuit against the jail’s former medical director.

In 2020, Chasity Congious, a 21-year-old pregnant Black woman with a history of mental illness and intellectual disability, spent months in the Tarrant County Jail. When she was 37 weeks pregnant, an OB-GYN reported she might not be able to understand or express when she was going into labor.

Four days later, Congious went into labor and gave birth alone in her cell. When the infant girl was discovered by jail staff, her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck. The baby was taken to a hospital, where she died 10 days later after being taken off life support.

In July 2025, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor granted summary judgment to Dr. Aaron Shaw, the former medical director of the Tarrant County Jail, on a denial of medical care claim brought by Congious’ mother on behalf of Congious and her baby. Although Shaw was not present at the jail on the day Congious gave birth, the plaintiff argued he was notified she might be going into labor, because he received an email that morning with an attachment stating Congious was having abdominal pains. They argued he therefore showed deliberate indifference by failing to act. Shaw,however, testified he did not see the email until after Congious had given birth. O’Connor, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled the plaintiff failed to show Shaw actually read the email.

The plaintiff claims the email itself should be considered notice, arguing courts in other cases have applied a “mailbox rule” where a person who receives a document through email has constructive notice of that document. O’Connor found the mailbox rule is “novel as applied to doctors,” and the plaintiff had not identified a case where it was applied in the deliberate indifference context.

The plaintiff’s attorney Jarrett Adams told the Fifth Circuit panel Tuesday that if O’Connor’s decision is allowed to stand, no plaintiff will ever be able to prove deliberate indifference in a denial of medical care case.

“Every defendant will simply say, ‘I didn’t read it, Your Honor. I didn’t see the text message. I didn’t get the call,’” Adams said.

But the judges on the panel seemed skeptical about applying the mailbox rule in the context of constitutional torts. U.S. Circuit Judge Stephen Higginson pointed out the high standard for establishing deliberate indifference.

“We could have the most reckless behavior from Dr. Shaw, but that doesn’t get there,” Higginson, a Barack Obama appointee, said. “It’s got to be ’turn the deaf ear.'”

U.S. Circuit Judge Jerry Smith, a Ronald Reagan appointee, and Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Jacques Wiener, a George H. W. Bush appointee, joined Higginson on the panel.

Derek Carson, an attorney for Shaw, argued the constructive notice provided by the mailbox rule is “mutually exclusive” from the standard for deliberate indifference, which requires “proof of subjective knowledge.”

Carson told the panel it matters what type of communication is involved. He said the email Shaw received was primarily for nurses at the jail to communicate with each other during shift changes.

“This was not an email to Dr. Shaw,” Carson said. “This is not an email that he regularly checked from nurses or was expected to check. This is an email from nurses to nurses that he’s copied on.”

Carson argued the email wasn’t meant to communicate emergencies and said if someone from the jail had called Shaw and told him Congious might be in labor, that would be a different situation.

But Adams argued Shaw was told Congious might not be able to recognize or express that she might be in labor but failed to warn anyone else at the jail about this.

“He probably thought, well, she can’t be going into labor if someone is looking and checking on her,” Adams said. “But the problem is, no one knew that she wouldn’t be able to communicate that she was going into labor besides Dr. Shaw.”

Congious was arrested in January 2020 when she was around four months pregnant. Her family had called the Fort Worth police department and requested she be transported to a hospital, as she was experiencing a mental health crisis. Police instead arrested her on a simple assault charge. She was taken to the Tarrant County Jail, where she was held in solitary confinement.

Congious spent months in the jail, where her condition deteriorated. According to O’Connor’s ruling, medical professionals who treated Congious reported she was suicidal and often could not understand she was pregnant. Congious was not permitted to see her infant daughter before she was taken off life support, and she was not allowed to attend her funeral. Six days after the funeral, the state dropped the charges against Congious, who by that point had spent five months in jail without receiving a legal hearing.

According to the family’s complaint against Shaw, Congious still asks when her daughter will come back.

In May 2024, Tarrant County approved a $1.2 million settlement with Congious, reportedly the largest in county history.