By Julia James
Two Tarrant County jail employees were reinstated Thursday and suspended with pay, a lawyer said, after they were fired for their role in the in-custody death of 31-year-old Anthony Johnson Jr.
Rafael Moreno and Moreno’s supervisor, Lt. Joel Garcia, were fired last month because of their actions April 21, Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn said last week. Moreno was seen on a cellphone video shared by the sheriff’s office kneeling on Johnson’s back as about a half-dozen jailers tried to restrain him.
Randall Moore, an attorney representing the lieutenant, confirmed Garcia had been reinstated, saying civil service rules needed to be followed in the discipline of an employee. He is not representing Moreno, but told The Dallas Morning News it was his understanding both jailers had their terminations reversed.
The sheriff’s office did not respond Thursday to calls requesting comment.
Jane Bishkin, a Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas attorney who previously raised issue with Moreno’s firing, also did not respond Thursday to a text or phone call requesting comment.
In the videos, Moreno can be seen kneeling on Johnson for about 90 seconds. After Moreno shifted his weight onto Johnson, Johnson can be heard saying he can’t breathe.
Johnson was placed in handcuffs after jail employees struggled for almost three minutes to restrain him. Following the altercation, Johnson was unresponsive. The former Marine was later pronounced dead.
The sheriff’s office initially said the death was the result of a “medical emergency” after a fight between jailers and Johnson during a “routine cell check.”
Garcia, as the supervisor, recorded the encounter. Waybourn said Garcia was fired because he did not properly respond to the “urgency of the situation” and made missteps in seeking medical attention for Johnson. Moreno was fired because he should not have used his knee to pin Johnson once he was already handcuffed, Waybourn said.
“I just think it’s ironic that they terminated [Garcia] for violating rules that they never specified, but they didn’t follow the rules themselves in this process,” Moore said.
Daryl Washington, an attorney representing Johnson’s family, also raised concerns about why proper procedures weren’t followed, noting the firings came a month after Johnson died. He said given what the family saw on a 14-minute video, which has not been released publicly, they still believe both men should be fired, along with other employees involved in the death.
“This is not the type of news that the family wanted to hear on the eve of Anthony’s funeral,” Washington said. “To now have to be asking questions about whether procedures were properly followed with the termination of these jailers, that’s just something they didn’t want to have to talk about or deal with today.”
Washington and Moore have each called for Waybourn to release the longer recording of what happened on April 21.
