The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office was late in reporting an in-custody death to the Texas Attorney General's Office, citing a clerical error.
Charles Stephen Johnson died in Tarrant County Jail custody on Feb. 8. His official cause of death is pending an autopsy by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office, but the sheriff’s office said in a press release at the time he died after a suicide attempt.
Under state law, jails must report every death in custody to the Texas Attorney General’s Office “no later than the 30th day” after the date the person died. Those reports are publicly available online.
The 30th day after Johnson’s death was Monday, and the report wasn’t posted. Texas Jail Project, a nonprofit jail watchdog, emailed the sheriff, Tarrant County commissioners and other elected representatives on Monday.
“Texas Jail Project respectfully requests that you immediately and appropriately cure any violation of this law regarding the death of Charles Stephen Johnson and notify us when you have complied with the statute,” Texas Jail Project Executive Director Krish Gundu wrote in an email shared with KERA News.
The report on Johnson’s death is now on the AG’s website. It's dated March 11 at 7:54 am.
In a statement, the sheriff’s office blamed a clerical error.
“Upon researching this, was determined that on February 21, 2025, a Supervisor was entering the in-custody death report for inmates Kimberly Phillips and Charles Stephen Johnson,” the statement reads. “The report for inmate Phillips was successfully submitted, however the report for inmate Johnson was not. The Supervisor was not aware that only one report was successfully transmitted.”
Gundu sent her email on Monday at 5:40 p.m. The sheriff's office statement says it was notified of the problem on Tuesday.
The sheriff’s office followed protocol in alerting the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, the state regulatory agency for jails, and in asking the Texas Rangers to investigate the death, the statement says.
Advocates and families of people who have died in the jail have criticized the sheriff’s office for failing to get outside investigations of previous deaths. Third-party investigations of in-custody deaths are also required under state law.
Got a tip? Email Miranda Suarez at msuarez@kera.org.
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