Three more detention officers have been added to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Anthony Johnson Jr., who died in Tarrant County Jail custody in April.
The suit initially named former detention officer Rafael Moreno and his supervisor Lt. Joel Garcia along with up to 10 unnamed detention officers listed as "John Doe" as responsible for Johnson's April 21 death.
Now, detention officers JaQuavious Simmons, Elijah Marez and Johnathan Nymoen are listed as defendants, leaving seven officers still unnamed.
It was not immediately clear if the three officers had legal representation or if they were still employed by the sheriff's office.
Johnson died by mechanical and chemical asphyxia while in Tarrant County Jail custody. His death was ruled a homicide by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office.
The lawsuit accuses up to 12 detention officers of, "inhumane treatment, lack of compassion, egregious and unconscionable actions, inexcusable neglect and cowardice acts," for their alleged role in Johnson's death.
Moreno and Garcia were the only detention officers named in connection with Johnson's death by the sheriff's office following the release of five minutes of video showing part of the events leading up to the death. Both were fired, later reinstated and placed on administrative leave, and then fired again.
At the time of the partial video's release, Sheriff Bill Waybourn said Moreno used a technique detention officers are not trained to do. He added that Garcia was fired for not having better control of the situation and stopping Moreno.
However, Garcia's attorney Randy Moore previously told KERA News that he has not been shown specific policies that Garcia violated.
"This is one of the most confusing cases that I've worked on of allegations of violating policy when the policy is lacking, overly broad, and general," he previously told KERA.
Reporting from KERA News also found that the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office use of force and restraint procedures are more than 15 years old. The office also operates on division-specific standard operating procedures.
In 2021, a draft of general orders — which would have provided updated guidance for use of force and restraints for all sheriff's office staff — was submitted to command staff but never implemented, reporting from KERA News and the Fort Worth Report found.
Washington told KERA and the Report that a general policy could have prevented Johnson's death.
“There's no doubt that we believe that if you have properly trained jailers, it could have played a major role,” Washington said.
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