TARRANT COUNTY, Texas — Three Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office deputies have been accused of falsely claiming to work overtime in the jail that they didn’t actually work, according to court records obtained by WFAA.
Brennan Cox, 28, faces a third degree felony theft charge, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Akila Desire Reynolds, 32, and John Edward Casey, 41, each face one count of theft of property, a state jail felony.
Casey was assigned to patrol, Reynolds worked in the courthouse and Cox worked in operations, according to the records.
The deputies were paid to work overtime in the jail as part of the department’s efforts to alleviate staffing shortages, the records say.
The records detail that the investigation began in May when an audit identified three deputies whose computerized time-keeping records didn’t match staffing records maintained by the jail.
The investigator interviewed Cox in June and asked him to explain the discrepancies.
Cox said that in August 2020, his wife started nursing school, which required she do clinicals over the weekend in Longview.
“Cox said that after a couple of weeks of not working overtime, he realized the ‘hit” on his paycheck and with his dependents, he ‘could not make it,” the court records state. “Cox said he could not afford the salary cut and ‘just put it in,’ meaning he entered the overtime knowingly although he had not worked.’’
However, the court records state that the investigators concluded that overtime theft started several years earlier. The investigator wrote that Cox claimed at least 1,701 overtime hours that could not be corroborated, totaling a payout of about $87,000 between October 2020 and April 2024.
The court records say the sheriff’s investigator interviewed a supervisor, who said that it was not “common practice” to verify that the deputies were working the hours in the jail that they claimed.
“If a deputy claims overtime hours in the jail, there is no standard in place to verify…”,” the court records say. “He likened it to the Honor System and staff is expected to be honest about the time they record.”
The record say Reynolds claimed 538 hours of overtime that could not be “corroborated,” totaling about $29,000 between August 2023 and March 2024. Casey worked at least 449 hours of overtime that could not be “corroborated,” totaling about $26,200 between November 2021 and March 2024.
The records say that Casey scheduled an interview with the investigator but then did not show up. Reynolds told the investigator that she would be in touch but had not reached back out as of the time of the warrant being obtained earlier this month, records state.
Reynolds began working for the sheriff’s office in 2013 and was promoted to deputy in 2021. Casey began working for the sheriff’s office in 2006 and was promoted to deputy in 2008. Cox was hired in 2020 and resigned in May.
TCSO sent the following response to WFAA on Thursday evening:
"We’re aware of the allegations, because these are open cases, we’re unable to comment. You will have to contact the DA’s Office for further information."
