TARRANT COUNTY, Texas — The attorney representing the supervisor at the center of a controversial in-custody death wants the entire cell phone video of the incident released.
He says that Sheriff Bill Waybourn mischaracterized Lt. Joe Garcia’s actions during the use-of-force incident that resulted in 31-year-old Anthony Johnson’s death on April 21. He also says the full video will show that John Peter Smith jail medical staff appeared to initially think Johnson, a military veteran, was faking a medical emergency.
Last month, the sheriff’s office released about two minutes and 40 seconds of the cell phone video that Garcia took that day. But there’s nine other minutes, and Randy Moore, the attorney representing Garcia, has seen it all.
“In the 40 years I've done this, I've not seen one use-of-force that looks good on video,” said Moore. “What I disagree with is showing select pieces of the video, omitting critical parts of the video and misstating things on the video. If you're going to do that, then let's just go ahead and release the whole video.”
Moore joins a growing chorus of people ranging from Johnson’s family to activists to county commissioners who have called for the video’s release. Those calls have intensified since the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded last week that Johnson died of mechanical and chemical asphyxia.
In a statement, the sheriff’s office said it will not be “releasing the complete video to the public. It is against TCSO standards to release any images (still or video) of unresponsive or deceased individuals.”
Last month, the sheriff fired Garcia and jailer Rafael Moreno only to have to have to reinstate them because civil service rules weren’t followed. Both Moreno and Garcia remain on paid administrative leave.
“He is devastated by two things, number one the loss of life is never easy,” Moore said. “But he’s also equally upset at how he’s been publicly persecuted by the sheriff with less than a full investigation.”
Johnson is the seventh person to die in the Tarrant County Jail this year. More than 60 prisoners have died since Waybourn became sheriff in 2017.
The situation that led to Johnson’s death began as jailers conducted a routine check of jail cells for contraband. Johnson refused to come out of his cell. A fight ensued. Jailers pepper sprayed Johnson during the confrontation that played out on the second floor.
Surveillance video released by the sheriff’s department shows at times both Johnson and the jailers were at risk of falling over the railing. All of this happened before Lt. Garcia arrived on scene.
Moore told WFAA that Garcia went looking for a GoPro camera that jail uses to video "use-force incidents" but it wasn’t there. So instead, he used a department-issued cell phone.
He says since the GoPro wasn’t available, the lieutenant could have chosen not to video the incident.
“His thought was I’m going to video it because video is better than no video,” Moore said.
The cell video released so far begins with other jailers rushing to help the jailers involved in the fight.
“Up here. Up here,” a jailer says. “He’s still fighting.”
It shows Moreno climbing the stairs, following by Garcia. As he’s filming, Garcia asks if jailers have placed restraints on Johnson. He’s told that his arms have been restrained. But not his legs.
“Leave him there until we get leg irons,” Garcia says on the video.
While they wait, Moreno places his knee in Johnson’s back. He grabs the rail and appears to be attempting to not to place his entire weight on Moreno’s back.
“I can’t breathe,” Johnson says on the video.
Garcia can be heard telling the medical staff that they’ll bring Johnson down the stairs to them. Moreno removes his knee after about 90 seconds.
“The most important thing to me that’s been overlooked involving Lt. Garcia is that he’s trying to videotape the incident,” Moore said. “He’s two or three people back and he’s expected to know what happened before, know what’s going on underneath the pile and video tape and give commands all at the same time. I think that’s asking a lot.
During a press conference last month, Waybourn said Garica that told the nurses that they would bring Johnson down the stairs to them. He said that medical attention had been delayed as a result.
But Moore says the unreleased video will show that Waybourn mischaracterized what happened. He says that once Garcia sees that Johnson has become unresponsive, he calls for medical to go ahead and come up the stairs to tend to Johnson.
“Garcia’s time on scene until deferring to medical is less than four minutes, from detecting lack of response to deferring to medical is less than a minute,” Moore said.
Moore also provided WFAA a transcript of the medical staff’s comments, which he says indicate that the nurses thought Johnson was faking.
One nurse tells him, “What’s wrong fella, we doing this on purpose?”
She tells another medical staffer, “I can’t tell if it's intentional” and also says, “I think it’s by choice.”
Several minutes later, after he’s been placed in a medical transport chair, one medical staffer asks the nurse, “What happened up there”?
“He decided to fight three officers,” she replies.
“Why is he like this, did something happen between there and here?” the medical staffer asks.
“I think it’s by choice,” she replies.
“The sense that I see from the video is that the medical personnel were not acting as if this was an urgent situation,” Moore said.
He questions how the sheriff can accuse Garcia of failing to show urgency given the reactions of the medical staff.
Daryl Washington, the family’s attorney, said earlier this week that what people will see on the video is “medical professionals who just didn’t care.”
“In fact, they just stood around there and did not even know that Anthony was taking his last breath,” Washington said.
Moore says he’s not criticizing the medical staff and he can’t know what they were thinking, but he says their reactions would have played a role in how jailers would have viewed urgency of the situation.
In a statement to WFAA, John Peter Smith Hospital officials said that they will “review our care following this incident to determine whether there is any additional action warranted. A portion of the video footage has not yet been released to the public, so we are not in a position to comment upon that at this time.”
In a statement Thursday, the sheriff’s office says Moreno should not have placed his knee in Johnson’s back given that he was already in handcuffs, and it faults Garcia for allowing Moreno to do it.
The department said in a statement Thursday that once someone has been pepper sprayed and their hands are restrained, “the next step is to immediately get them in an upright position. Leg irons can be secured at a later time.”
“From a technical standpoint, a person would not be considered FULLY restrained until both handcuffs and leg irons are placed,” the sheriff’s office said in the statement.
Moore told WFAA that the current use of force policy doesn’t state anything about getting inmate into an upright position after pepper spray is deployed.
“The policy is somewhat broad,” Moore said. “It addresses decontamination, addressing distress when observed, and being left unattended after OCS [pepper spray] is deployed. I will stand corrected if TCSO releases a copy of the policy in effect or a general or specific order stating such.”
Moore questions why Garcia was singled out given that there were other supervisors who were on scene for the entire incident.
“I don't understand why Lt. Garcia, other than the fact that he is the highest-ranking officer there,” Moore said. “If we're going to use the captain of the ship doctrine as a sole basis for incriminating someone the ultimate captain of the ship is Sheriff Waybourn.”
Moore says it speaks to a bigger problem with training of correctional officers.
“Every time we have a death in that jail, somebody gets fired,” he said. “But the deaths just keep coming.”
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