A fatal injury in the Dallas County jail was kept quiet until we started asking questions. Advocates see a troubling trend

On her first night in the Dallas County jail, paramedics rushed Julie Buelna to a hospital with a head injury and blood coming from her ears. But the sheriff’s office never told her family she was fighting for her life in emergency surgery.

When she died 11 days later, the sheriff’s office didn’t notify state regulators within 24 hours as mandated by Texas jail standards. It also failed to alert the Attorney General within 30 days, a requirement spelled out in state law.

Instead, Dallas County jail officials quietly – without a judge’s order – released Buelna from their custody hours after the 48-year-old woman arrived at the hospital on Feb. 25. The move came at the request of the Collin County Sheriff’s Office, the agency that was supposed to pick Buelna up from the jail because she had been arrested in Dallas County on a felony theft warrant from Plano.

The Collin County Sheriff’s Office had no authority under Texas law to cancel Plano’s warrant without judicial involvement after Buelna had been booked into the Dallas County jail, legal experts told The Dallas Morning News.

“It would appear that this was not an authorized release,” said Sandra Guerra Thompson, a University of Houston Law Center professor.

By releasing Buelna from custody before she died, the agencies delayed a state investigation into how she was fatally injured on Dallas County’s watch. The probe began four weeks later when regulators caught wind of the case.

Advocates and legal experts see a troubling trend, raising questions about how many jail-related fatalities are going unreported in Texas. Since 2023, Texas Jail Project, a nonprofit that advocates for incarcerated people, has identified 23 unreported jails deaths across Texas, prompting most of them to be investigated later by state officials.

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards learned of Buelna’s death and launched an investigation only after The News began reporting on her case. Buelna’s mother, Joann Proper, first contacted The News, and a reporter asked Texas Jail Project executive director Krish Gundu about the last-minute release.

Alarmed, Gundu notified the state commission about Buelna’s case.

The state agency requires a third-party investigation of all in-custody fatalities, regardless of whether the incarcerated person takes their final breath behind bars or in a hospital.

TCJS director Ricky Armstrong said he determined Buelna’s death should have been counted as occurring in-custody after Gundu’s message, saying the commission does not recognize the way in which she was released from custody. It made Buelna the third official Dallas County jail fatality so far in 2026.

Collin County Sgt. Jessica Pond said the office directed Dallas County jail officials to release Buelna when she was hospitalized as “an administrative action related to her medical status.” Pond said the release did not dismiss Buelna’s felony charge and the warrant was reactivated so she could be re-arrested after her hospitalization.

Pond declined to clarify the rationale for releasing Buelna from custody during her hospital stay. Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown did not respond to phone calls or emailed questions for this story.

Buelna’s case comes after the Dallas County jail’s death rate rose 50% from 2018 through 2025 compared to the previous eight years, according to an analysis by The News. In Brown’s first eight years as sheriff, 71 incarcerated people died; 48 died in the eight years before when the jail’s average population was even higher.

Failing to report jail deaths, or removing people from custody as they are dying from injuries sustained behind bars, allows counties to dodge medical costs and scrutiny, Gundu said.

“It’s basically washing your hands off because then the death doesn’t have to be reported and they don’t have to worry about an investigation,” Gundu said.

Tom Cox, a Dallas criminal defense attorney, said incarcerated people with active charges are typically released through bond provisions, a court-authorized medical release or when the issuing agency releases a warrant. The Collin County Sheriff’s Office had no legal basis to release Plano’s warrant over a “medical status,” he said, raising questions about motivation.

“We all understand they don’t release people from any of these jails just simply because they have a bad health condition,” said Cox, a member of the Dallas County Bail Bond Board.

Nearly three months after Buelna died, her family still doesn’t know what happened to her in the Dallas County Jail. The sheriff’s office denied The News’ request for the incident report and camera footage, citing confidentiality, and asked the Attorney General to decide its release.

“We are in agony not knowing what truly happened to Julie,” said her mother, Joann Proper. “She was loved and had a very big heart and in no way has deserved what has happened to her.”

Buelna grew up in Washington and moved to Dallas in 2008 to be near family, Proper said. She loved fashion and dreamed of becoming an esthetician. But she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at 14 and struggled with substance abuse much of her life, according to her mother.

Buelna was arrested on Feb. 22 by Addison Police on the Plano felony warrant alleging she stole Botox and other services from a medical spa that cost at least $2,500 combined. Because the arrest took place in Dallas County, she was held in the Richardson holding facility and booked into Lew Sterrett on Feb. 24 to await pickup by Collin County, according to records.

A Dallas County magistrate set her bond at $20,000. Pond said Dallas County officials notified Collin County Buelna was booked and ready to be transferred to the McKinney jail.

A Lew Sterrett employee called 911 at 11:29 p.m. that evening, saying Buelna “jumped from the upper level,” according to Dallas Fire Rescue audio obtained by The News through a public records request.

Paramedics arrived seven minutes later, but it took them nine minutes to reach Buelna with a “staff delay,” according to EMS records.

Susy Solis, a fire rescue spokesperson, said the lag was due to the jail’s mandatory security screenings, credential verification for EMS personnel and escorts through secure access points.

When paramedics reached Buelna, she had been down for about 15 minutes and jail staff had put her in a neck collar and head bandage, according to an EMS report. It states her eyes were open but she was not responsive and she had blood coming from her mouth and ears.

They transported her to Methodist Dallas Medical Center, the closest trauma center.

Dallas County officials then informed Collin County Buelna was hospitalized, according to Pond. At the direction of the Collin County Sheriff’s Office, Dallas County jail officials released Buelna from their custody at 12:31 p.m. on Feb. 25, about 13 hours after the incident, according to release records.

Neither sheriff’s office notified Buelna’s family she was in a hospital, Proper said. Two days after the incident, on Feb. 26, Proper said she received a call from a hospital employee stating Buelna was in critical condition after emergency surgery.

Proper and Buelna’s sister, Lorilee Cody, took the first flight from their home in Arizona. When they arrived, Buelna was in a coma on a breathing machine. She had a broken collarbone and a collapsed lung. The front of her skull had been removed.

“We could not believe what happened and we wanted to get some answers,” Proper said.

Proper and Cody went to the sheriff’s office the next day. Cody said they met with a lieutenant, who told them camera footage showed Buelna jumping from a second-story ledge.

The family asked to view the footage but Cody said the sheriff’s officials declined.

Proper and Cody have difficulty believing Buelna would have tried to die by suicide. In a phone call from the Richardson holding facility the day before, Proper said her daughter was talking about getting her things from an apartment she had to vacate and working on getting bail.

If she jumped, the family questions how the jail gave her access to do so.

But after meeting with the lieutenant, they said the sheriff’s office stopped responding to their calls and emails. Buelna died March 7.

“It’s a nightmare,” Proper said. “We think about this every day.”

Earlier this year, deaths in Texas jails were on the brink of even less scrutiny.

On Feb. 12, Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion stating third-party investigations are only required by law when deaths occur inside a jail, not when incarcerated people die in an ambulance or after transfer to a hospital.

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards tasked with overseeing jails resisted, stating regulators would continue to investigate in-custody deaths no matter where they occur.

State law still directs sheriffs to inform the Attorney General of jail deaths within 30 days. Failure to do so is a misdemeanor offense.

The Dallas County Sheriff’s Office had not filed a custodial death report for Buelna with the Attorney General as of May 27 – 81 days after she died and nearly two months after the state commission declared the case a Dallas County in-custody death.

Of the 23 unreported deaths Texas Jail Project has identified since 2023, some were due to no-cash bonds issued as incarcerated people were dying. Some counties said they did so to give families a final moment with their loved ones.

But sheriffs have authority to allow family contact while an incarcerated person is still in custody in a hospital, said Armstrong, the state jail commission director.

Law enforcement may also take dying people out of custody through a compassionate release process, but that requires a judge’s ruling.

Thompson, the University of Houston Law Center professor, said she had never heard of a sheriff’s office releasing someone from jail without judicial action.

Buelna’s family is holding on to hope that the state’s investigation will provide answers. But those probes can take months or years to complete.

Until then, they wait.