Judge won’t set discovery in Miller County jail death suit until he rules on county’s bid to dismiss

TEXARKANA, Ark. – A federal judge will not set a discovery schedule in the wrongful-death lawsuit over Dominique Rashad Steel Sr.’s death in the Miller County jail until he rules on the county’s request to throw the case out, according to an order filed Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge John Thomas Shepherd denied as moot the county’s motion to stay discovery, noting that every deadline in the case’s initial scheduling order has already passed and no new ones are set. The court will not issue a final scheduling order “until it issues a ruling on Miller County’s pending motion for judgment on the pleadings,” he wrote.

Miller County had asked to halt all discovery while that motion is pending, arguing the case would be dismissed if the motion is granted and that discovery before a ruling could be a waste of time and resources. Zoey Baca, who sued on behalf of Steel’s two minor children, did not respond to the stay motion, the order says.

The county filed its motion for judgment on the pleadings in late July.

Baca sued the county June 9 in the Texarkana Division of the Western District of Arkansas, alleging jail staff ignored inmates’ screams for more than 40 minutes while Steel, 30, suffered a medical emergency in his cell on or about Feb. 27. The complaint says Steel died March 1.

In its answer, as TXKtoday reported in July, the county said Steel’s death resulted from a “self-induced consumption of drugs,” that staff reached the cell within two to three minutes of being alerted, and that the alert came from Steel’s cellmate pressing the cell’s emergency button rather than from inmates’ screams. Sheriff Wayne Easley said in March that foul play was not suspected.

The suit brings a single civil rights claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.