Corley was booked into Denton County Jail on February 15, records show, facing drug and firearm charges.
When he was brought into custody, Greg Corley asked not to be handcuffed with his hands behind his back, his father Jeff Corley said in an interview with KERA.
That's because Greg had a stent in his right arm, which was placed after a motorcycle accident in 2019 that made that arm immobile, Jeff said. Greg worried that being cuffed behind his back could crush the stent, but he was cuffed behind his back anyway, crushing the stent and cutting off blood flow, Jeff said.
Greg and his family allege that jail medical staff delayed his treatment for months, leading to blood clots and gangrene in Greg’s injured right arm, which now needs to be amputated.
A photo from theDenton Record-Chronicle shows Greg holding up his arm to the camera on a jail visitation screen, his fingers swollen and purple, his fingernails bluish-white.
"I don't think it matters what the inmate is in jail for,” Jeff said. “They (inmates) all deserve the same health care and deserve good health care, because they can’t take care of themselves when they’re in jail.”
Amputation wasn’t on the table before Greg went to jail, Jeff said. In fact, his son had regained some of the movement in that arm.
"You can't put a dollar value on losing your arm and losing 35 years of work,” he said.
KERA requested body and dashboard camera footage of Greg’s arrest, but the Denton County Sheriff’s Office Records Department replied that those records do not exist, because Greg Corley was brought in by a bounty hunter.
“We still would not have body cam and/or dash cam because he was not arrested by one of our deputies,” Vianey Robles with the records department wrote in an email.
KERA called and emailed the Denton County Sheriff’s Office to request an interview about Greg’s case.
Greg is no longer in Denton County Jail. Denton County released Greg on Tuesday on a personal recognizance bond, but records show he is now in custody in Collin County, where he faces other charges.
About 20 protesters still gathered at the Denton County Jail on Wednesday night to demand that the Denton County Sheriff’s Office cover Corley’s medical expenses. Under the jail’s barbed wire walls, people held up a sign that read, “END MEDICAL NEGLECT IN DENTON CO. JAIL.”
“His worsened condition could have been prevented, and the county should pay the cost for their negligence,” said Tamera Hutcherson, the North Texas community organizer with Texas Jail Project.
Got a tip? Email Miranda Suarez at msuarez@kera.org. You can follow Miranda on Twitter @MirandaRSuarez.
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