The lawsuit over Anthony Johnson Jr.’s death in Tarrant County Jail custody isn't over, but Tarrant County has been spared from litigation.
Johnson died on April 21, 2024 after an altercation with Tarrant County jailers. One jailer knelt on his back, while Johnson said he couldn’t breathe. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Johnson’s death a homicide by asphyxiation, and two jailers — Rafael Moreno and Joel Garcia — have been indicted for murder.
Johnson’s family sued Tarrant County and more than a dozen jailers accused of involvement in Johnson's death. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor dismissed the claims against Tarrant County and six of the named jailers.
The lawsuit failed to prove that Tarrant County’s policies and procedures led to Johnson’s death, O’Connor decided.
“Plaintiffs have not pleaded facts to show that the authorized policymaker, the Sheriff, approved both the outcome and the reasons for the actions that led to it,” he wrote.
O’Connor also ruled the lawsuit did not prove that six of the jailers were responsible for Johnson’s death, or that they showed negligence in not preventing it.
The lawsuit named two jailers, Robert Russ and Kyle Longo, who put Johnson in a wheelchair “but did absolutely nothing to assist.”
Putting him in the wheelchair counts as taking some action, “whether it was negligent or not,” O’Connor wrote.
Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn responded to the dismissal in a press release Monday.
“Anyone can file a lawsuit and make unfounded claims against a person or organization,” Waybourn said. “Fortunately, our justice system requires evidence to support those allegations.”
Johnson family attorney Daryl K. Washington plans to appeal the ruling, he told KERA News. He maintained the problems at the Tarrant County Jail are systemic.
"If Garcia and Moreno worked for Coca-Cola, and they injured or killed somebody during the course and scope of their duty, Coca-Cola would be held liable," he said.
The ruling is a disappointment, Krish Gundu of Texas Jail Project said in an emailed statement. Her organization advocates for better conditions in county jails across the state.
“It's our sincere hope that Mr. Johnson Jr's family gets the speedy justice they seek,” Gundu wrote. “Additionally, we hope the county, especially [the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office], does not interpret this dismissal as a blank check to keep engaging in policies and procedures that have led to serious harms and deaths."
The two jailers indicted for murder, Moreno and Garcia, and seven others remain as defendants in the lawsuit.
Tarrant County isn’t financially off the hook in the Johnson lawsuit. The county is paying for lawyers for the jailers named as defendants.
That means the county is in the awkward position of defending Moreno and Garcia in the lawsuit while prosecuting them in criminal court.
That contradictory position is required by state law, then-county administrator G.K. Maenius said during a similar case in 2022. The Local Government Code says county employees who get sued for something they did on the job are entitled to legal representation from the county.
The case Maenius referred to was the in-custody death of Javonte Myers, which sparked a lawsuit and criminal prosecutions.
Myers’ family received a $1 million settlement in that lawsuit — part of the more than $4.3 million Tarrant County has paid to end jail lawsuits since 2022.
The most recent settlement of $775,000 went to the family of Kelly Masten, a woman with intellectual disabilities and a severe seizure disorder. She suffered severe injuries after the jail let her seize and fall repeatedly in her unpadded cell, the lawsuit alleged.
The largest settlement in county history went to Chasity Congious, who gave birth alone in her cell in 2020. Her daughter, Zenorah, died 10 days later.
Not including Zenorah, at least 69 people have died in Tarrant County custody since Waybourn took office in 2017. That number does include one person who died while housed at a private prison in West Texas, which Tarrant County previously used as overflow space.
The most recent death was on Saturday, when a 36-year-old man died "following complications from an attempted suicide," according to the sheriff’s office.
Waybourn has blamed deaths in custody on the fact that people come into jail with health problems. During an interview last year, he told KERA News and the Fort Worth Report that he had someone in the hospital who was “very, very sick.”
“Medically speaking, his life is not going to be that long, unfortunately. But what will it be? That’ll be a death in custody. We’ve had a lot of those deaths like that,” he said.
He also said jailers who do wrong are held accountable, like Moreno and Garcia.
Another former jailer agreed to pay $250,000 in restitution last year after he pleaded guilty to lying about checking on Myers, who died of a seizure disorder in his cell.
Got a tip? Email Miranda Suarez at msuarez@kera.org.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.
