Harris County pays $1.25M after its jail housed a 98-pound disabled teen with his killer
Harris County commissioners approved a $1.25 million settlement on Feb. 28, 2026, in a federal lawsuit over the October 2021 killing of Fred Harris, 19, in the Harris County Jail. Harris had an intellectual disability, an IQ of 68 and weighed 98 pounds; a magistrate had found him to be a person with intellectual disability. The suit says jailers placed him in a holding cell with Michael Ownby, a 240-pound inmate who had assaulted a detainee and a guard days earlier, without checking classifications, and that three guards watched the beating without intervening. It alleged the jail lacked staff for basic safety. Ownby pleaded guilty to murder and got 50 years. Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said staffing levels played no role. The county did not admit wrongdoing, and no discipline of jail staff has been reported.
However, guards allegedly failed to check his classification or Ownby's, which would have prevented their placement together.
"This jail wasn't given enough money for the very basics of care that inmates should have," Kallinen previously told ABC13.
Fred Harris beaten: Harris County Sheriff says jail staffing levels played no role in killing of teen inmate with special needs
Sheriff said jail staffing levels played no role in the killing.
Said jail staffing levels played no role in the killing of Fred Harris.
No outcome recorded yet.