Harris County Sheriff’s Office
FILE — A detention officer walks up steps inside the Harris County Jail.
A second lawsuit filed in federal court this month against Sheriff Ed Gonzalez asserts a Harris County Jail inmate suffered from delusions and was unable to advocate for himself before dying inside the jail from sepsis caused by a strep throat infection.
An autopsy obtained by Houston Public Media shows that 39-year-old Kristopher McGregor was discovered inside his cell with an altered mental status and shortness of breath before he was transported to Ben Taub Hospital on Jan. 29, 2025. He died at the hospital the next day after suffering from dehydration, physical deconditioning and chronic fatigue syndrome.
The lawsuit filed Thursday ahead of the anniversary of McGregor’s death asserts he stopped eating, drinking and showering as his mental health deteriorated inside the jail.
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“Kristopher’s preventable death is symptomatic of Harris County’s chronically inadequate health care system and persistent deliberate disregard of detainees’ serious medical needs,” the lawsuit asserts. “The prevailing attitude of indifference to the health and safety of detainees at the Harris County Jail is well-established and well-documented.”
Courtesy of Citterece McGregor
Kristopher McGregor
Kim Lewis, whose son died at a private detention facility in Louisiana after being outsourced from the Harris County Jail last year, spoke about McGregor’s death at Harris County Commissioners Court on Thursday. She and others asked commissioners to vote against a $7 million proposal for more than 100 new detention officer positions.
“Both died of eerily similar and easily treatable strep throat infections,” Lewis said. “My son kept asking for medical help, which he was repeatedly denied by La Salle staff, while Kristopher was so severely mentally ill that he couldn’t even ask for help.”
Lewis filed a lawsuit last week against LaSalle Correctional Center in Louisiana and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. It’s the third to be filed in connection to Harris County Jail inmates who died after being outsourced to LaSalle, one of the privately owned, out-of-state detention facilities that receives millions of dollars from contracts with the county to house hundreds of its inmates.
RELATED: New lawsuit details outsourced Harris County Jail inmate’s death from strep throat infection
The latest jail lawsuit related to McGregor’s death asserts that jail staff ignored his mental health needs and failed to provide him with a means to access medical care, given his known difficulty seeking and obtaining medical care on his own.
“Documented cases of medical neglect and wrongful death in the jail have led to the filing of dozens of civil rights complaints against Harris County over the past decade, and countless others have been the subject of public outcry,” according to the lawsuit.
Twenty people died in the custody of the Harris County Jail last year, an increase from 2024. Two people have died in the jail’s custody so far this year — most recently, 56-year-old Anthony Delarosa, who suffered from a medical emergency inside the jail.
The Harris County Jail, which houses more than 8,000 inmates, saw fewer deaths per capita to detention facilities of similar size last year, including Maricopa County in Arizona and Los Angeles County in California, reports show.
The jail has remained out of compliance with the state’s minimum jail standards since last year. A recent state inspection found deficiencies with fire control panels and issues with providing timely medical services to inmates.
“An autopsy determined Kristopher McGregor’s death was a natural result of septic complications associated with renal failure, with contributory causes of hypertensive cardiovascular disease and schizophrenia,” Jason Spencer, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, said in a statement. “We are unable to comment further on this pending litigation.”
Naomi Lockett, the medical director of the Harris County Jail, is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, which states she was responsible for the creation, implementation, oversight and supervision of medical care to individuals in the jail. The Harris Center for Mental Health and Intellectual and Developmental Disability is responsible for providing mental health services to jail inmates.