Critics of Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn, including a Tarrant County commissioner, called for his resignation Friday after the release of video showing a jail altercation that preceded a detainee's death last month.
That incident also led to the firing of two jailers — corrections officer Rafael Moreno and his supervisor, Lt. Joel Garcia — who Waybourn said violated department policy in their handling of the April 21 incident involving Anthony Johnson Jr.
At a press conference Friday, Commissioner Alisa Simmons questioned Waybourn's leadership, and said the number of in-custody deaths made him unqualified to serve.
"We need someone at the top in the sheriff's office who is attentive, who is available, who's paying attention to what's happening in his jail," Simmons said. "We should not have this level, this number of deaths at the jail."
More than 60 people have died in county custody since Waybourn took office in 2017.
KERA News has reached out to Waybourn for comment and will update this story with any response.
The video clips — one from security camera footage, and one iPhone video captured by Garcia — show Johnson getting into a physical altercation with jailers outside his cell. A man identified as Moreno kneels on Johnson's back for more than a minute after he was already restrained, with Johnson telling jailers he can't breathe, Waybourn told reporters Thursday.
When Moreno got up, Johnson was unresponsive, Waybourn said.
Waybourn said the kneeling tactic violated his office's policies. He fired Moreno for the incident as well as Garcia for not stepping in to stop it.
The Texas Rangers are investigating the incident and will refer the case to the DA's office once it's done, Jeremy Sherrod, Regional Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told reporters this week. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office has not released Johnson's cause of death as of Friday morning.
Simmons and local activists at the press conference Fridayrenewed calls for a Department of Justice investigation into the county jail.
The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney's Office has failed to seek accountability for jailers before, Pastor Michael Bell of Greater St. Stephen First Church said. The detention officers accused in the beating of a prisoner named Cory Rodrigues got their cases dismissed last year with no public explanation.
"Both Officer Rafael Moreno and his supervisor, Joel Garcia, must be prosecuted," Bell said. "And once charged, we demand that District Attorney Phil Sorrells prosecute the perpetrators of this heinous crime to the fullest extent of the law."
The Sheriff's Office needs to release the full video of everything that happened to Johnson, Bell said. The iPhone clip released Thursday ends when Moreno lifts his knee off Johnson's back.
"The fact that no one intervened to place Mr. Johnson into a position of recovery is reprehensible," Bell said.
Most people in the jail have not been convicted of any crime, United Fort Worth Executive Director Pamela Young said.
"This is unconstitutional. This is torture. And this must end today," she said.
Randy Moore, the lawyer representing Garcia, also joined calls for the Sheriff's Office to release the full video. He told KERA News the sheriff is scapegoating his client.
"I think it looks exactly like they wanted it to look. I mean, they went out first and said what they wanted to say. They showed you a portion of the video they wanted you to see," Moore said.
It's unclear in the video who is really saying they can't breathe, as there was probably pepper spray in the air, Moore argued. Waybourn told reporters Thursday it was Johnson who said it.
Moore contends Garcia did nothing wrong. Johnson was not fully restrained when Moreno knelt on his back, because he only had wrist restraints on, he said. In the video Garcia captured, jailers can be heard calling for leg irons.
"This is a media lynching, is what it is," Moore said of his client. "He's being lynched in the media before he's even had a chance to respond."
Moore plans to appeal Garcia's firing next week. The sheriff himself is the person responsible for deaths in the jail, he said.
"The one thing in common with all of these deaths is the leadership," Moore said.
Jane Bishkin, the attorney representing Moreno, told KERA she is waiting to comment further until Johnson's cause of death becomes public.
This story has been updated with comments from Pamela Young, Michael Bell, Randy Moore and Jane Bishkin.
Got a tip? Email Miranda Suarez at msuarez@kera.org. You can follow Miranda on Twitter @MirandaRSuarez.
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