Dexter Barry, 54, died a few days after being released

Anne Maxwell
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Records from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office confirm a Jacksonville man did not receive any doses of an essential medication while at the Duval County Jail on a misdemeanor charge in November. After spending a weekend in jail, Dexter Barry, 54, died a few days after being released.

The records also reveal jailers knew about the prescription, which was required to keep his body from rejecting his heart transplant.

MORE: Man dies after going days in Duval County jail without medication, family says

According to Duke Health, if anti-rejection medications are stopped, rejection can occur quickly and can result in a permanent decline in heart function and death.

“My surgery cost me $4 million,” Barry is heard telling an officer in body camera video from his arrest. “I had a heart pump first, and I had a transplant.”

Barry was charged with simple assault on Nov. 18, 2022. He was accused of verbally threatening his neighbor in a dispute over Wi-Fi. The charge was a misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of 60 days.

The video of Barry’s arrest shows he told the officer about his transplant or his medicine seven times throughout the course of his arrest.

“I can’t miss no doses,” he told the arresting officer.

But he did miss doses, for days.

Jail records show Barry had a medical screening at the jail the day he was booked. His heart transplant and medications were noted, including his prescription for Mycophenolate, which is an immunosuppressant used to keep a patient’s body from rejecting an organ transplant. His health appointment was described as “urgent,” however, a log of medications Barry received at the jail over more than two days shows he never received the Mycophenolate drug that protected his heart.

“How do you give him blood pressure and cholesterol meds, but don’t give him the most important meds of all?” asked Barry’s daughter, Janelle King. “That’s my only question. And we all know now that my dad’s rejection meds were the most expensive meds he took. So all this can be about is money.”

Barry had dreams of becoming a grandparent.

“The fact that my father is not here, and I’m trying to have a baby soon, it’s really gut-wrenching to me,” King said.

Attorney Andrew Bonderud, who represents Barry’s family, said he waited five months for the public records he requested from JSO that prove Barry never got his medication in jail. He said the records were released to him the morning after the I-TEAM’s initial story on Barry was published.

“I want to get answers because I think the City of Jacksonville, the people who live here, and the people who run the city need to be educated about exactly what’s going on at the jail,” Bonderud said.

A spokesperson for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said they can’t comment on Barry’s situation because of pending litigation.

The I-TEAM has also reached out for comment to Armor Correctional Health Services, which is the parent company of the contractor that provides healthcare to inmates here at the jail.

Quoted:
If a hospital did that everyone would be named individually in the suit as well as the hospital. Need to end this qualified immunity BS

Quoted:
Chaching for his family

Quoted:
Chaching for his family

Quoted:
If a hospital did that everyone would be named individually in the suit as well as the hospital. Need to end this qualified immunity BS

Quoted:
Sorry OP, you can hate on all the cops you want but I cops don't decide what meds you get. Contract nurses and doctors handle that. Yes, the cops in the jail may handle distribution and that is it. They can't decide who gets what meds.

Quoted:
fine, i'll be "that guy". maybe, just maybe, if he had not threatened his neighbor, and kept his own ass out of jail, none of this would have happened? a radical concept, i know.

Quoted:
You really should take ‘cops’ out of your title since you know full well it wasn’t ‘cops’ that killed him, it was non sworn idiot jailers/medical staff that did it. But it just wouldn’t be as juicy I guess.

Quoted:
There is not a law on the books that police will not kill you to enforce.

Quoted:
fine, i'll be "that guy". maybe, just maybe, if he had not threatened his neighbor, and kept his own ass out of jail, none of this would have happened? a radical concept, i know.

Quoted:
Not that I need yet another reason to despise our government, but if the story is true, then everyone involved should be hung by the neck until dead. There is absolutely no excuse for a jailer to deny an inmate critical meds.  As far as I'm concerned, all government officials involved in this case should be convicted of murder and punished accordingly.

Quoted:
Blame the corrections officers and not police officers. They’re two totally different jobs. It’s like blaming the electricians because the plumbing is messed up.

Quoted:
Sorry OP, you can hate on all the cops you want but I cops don't decide what meds you get. Contract nurses and doctors handle that. Yes, the cops in the jail may handle distribution and that is it. They can't decide who gets what meds.

Quoted:
So charge everyone involved with manslaughter.

Quoted:
fine, i'll be "that guy". maybe, just maybe, if he had not threatened his neighbor, and kept his own ass out of jail, none of this would have happened? a radical concept, i know.

Quoted:
Interesting price range on GoodRX. No telling what the jail markup is.
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/255543/IMG_2866_jpeg-2832759.JPG

Quoted:


The CO's have fuck all to do with administering medication to inmates beyond handing out whatever medical staff tell them to hand out.  In most facilities medical staff perform med-pass and CO's just stand by.

Their only involvement is to document medical history and current medications/treatments, which gets passed along to medical staff.

There may be some liability on their end if it was clear to them that this guy was suffering from a medical emergency somewhere along the way and they didn't act accordingly, however.

Quoted:
Blame the corrections officers and not police officers. They’re two totally different jobs. It’s like blaming the electricians because the plumbing is messed up.

Quoted:


Possibly, I have no idea how things work at their facility, but beyond reporting an issue to medical staff, I've never worked anywhere that gave me any say in what treatment, medication, or assessments an inmate did/did not receive.

We would report everything to medical, they would look the inmate up to verify the info as best they could.  They would decide who they needed to see, who they wanted to see, and who needed an ambulance ride out.  Every shift would get a list of inmates they HAD to see that shift, and then a list of inmates they would see if time permitted.  If there was an incident they would do an assessment on scene and decide if we needed to call for an ambulance or not.

Short of deliberately withholding information, there wouldn't be any way for me to change a situation what so ever.

And we all know now that my dad’s rejection meds were the most expensive meds he took. So all this can be about is money.

Quoted:
fine, i'll be "that guy". maybe, just maybe, if he had not threatened his neighbor, and kept his own ass out of jail, none of this would have happened? a radical concept, i know.

Quoted:
So charge everyone involved with manslaughter.

Quoted:

Suit?  Hell, you'd have people calling for them to be arrested for negligence.

They knew he needed the meds.
They knew he'd likely die without it.
They didn't give him the meds.

Seems pretty cut and dry the people responsible should be spending some time on the other side of the bars.