Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn said Thursday that two jailers fired last week after the in-custody death of Anthony Johnson, Jr. have been reinstated.
Waybourn said the terminations of Officer Rafael Moreno and Lt. Joe Garcia were withdrawn after he was advised to do so by attorneys with the Civil Division of the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office.
"In my opinion, the IAD investigation had reached a point that would allow for termination. The Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office advised that additional steps must be taken in order to appropriately complete the process under the rules of Civil Service," Waybourn said in a statement. "Though I do not agree, under an abundance of caution, I withdrew the terminations in order to assure that the process was completed and all evidence was gathered for this administrative purpose."
In a news conference last week, Waybourn said he terminated Moreno for using a technique not approved by the sheriff's office and that he terminated Garcia for allowing the technique to be used and for failing to respond to the urgency of the situation.
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Both Moreno and Garcia were among a group of jailers Waybourn said were doing a required and routine shakedown of jail cells to find contraband. During the search of Johnson's cell, Waybourn said Johnson lunged at detention officers and struggled with them for several minutes in what he described as a very long, dangerous fight near a second-floor railing.
Waybourn said officers used pepper spray before Johnson was taken to the ground and restrained and that a jailer put his knee into Johnson's back to hold him until they could put on leg restraints.
About 90 seconds later, when the jailer stood up, Waybourn said Johnson was unresponsive and was moved downstairs to a medical area where attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.
The sheriff said detention officers are allowed to put their knee into the back of a person until restraints are in place, but that they are then expected to immediately put the restrained person into a recovery position. Waybourn said once they realized Johnson was unresponsive he should have been put into recovery, which didn't happen, and that the medical team that was downstairs should have been immediately brought upstairs to him rather than waiting to move him downstairs to them.
"The Sheriff of Tarrant County should be able to promptly terminate someone when there is evidence of egregious behavior," Waybourn said Thursday. "This is a troubling development, but I want to assure the citizens of Tarrant County that this does not change my commitment to getting justice in this case.”
Waybourn said both employees will remain on administrative leave and the investigation into the in-custody death will continue.
TEXAS RANGERS CONDUCTING CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
The Texas Rangers, a part of the Texas Department of Public Safety, are independently investigating Johnson's death. On Thursday, Texas DPS Regional Director Jeremy Sherrod said the Texas Rangers' investigation is ongoing and asked for continued patience.
“There are still a lot of missing pieces to the puzzle that we have to gather and some of those are from independent sources. So we ask for your patience," Sherrod said last week.
Sherrod said once their investigation is completed it would be referred to the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office and they would provide another update at that time.
JAILER'S TERMINATION WILL BE APPEALED
The Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas said they are representing one of the officers who was terminated and that they intended to appeal the firing.
"We feel that the sheriff’s actions are premature as the medical examiner’s report has not been released, and we don’t know the cause of death. The sheriff’s actions appear to be a response to the heightened public interest in this case," said CLEAT, in a statement.
