Nearly three years after a man died in the Tarrant County Jail from a fentanyl overdose, a federal lawsuit against the county and a jail commissary company has been dismissed.
Trelynn Wormley, 23, died July 20, 2022, while in the custody of the jail.
Wormley’s mother, Cassandra Johnson, sued, alleging the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office allowed drugs into the jail.
According to Johnson’s lawsuit, an investigation showed that a worker employed by Keefe Commissary Network smuggled drugs into the county jail.
The judge ruled there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that the jail had a policy of allowing drugs inside, and the case was dismissed with prejudice. This means the judge’s decision is final and the case can’t be brought back to court.
“We are not surprised by the dismissal of this lawsuit. The complaint had no factual basis, and we are happy the court recognized that,” a Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office official said.
The commissary company did not reply to NBC 5’s request to comment on the story.
In September 2022, Aaliyah Lyles, who worked as a contractor at the jail, was arrested after an investigation into drug trafficking. According to a warrant, in an interview after her arrest, Lyles told investigators an inmate offered to pay for her to get her hair done and then put her in touch with a dealer who offered to pay her $200 to carry drugs into the jail. The drugs she admitted smuggling included fentanyl, Tarrant County Sheriff Waybourn said at the time.
Lyles was indicted in March 2023. In October 2024, she was sentenced to 10 years probation and 160 hours of community service.