Fired Tarrant jailers connected to death of Anthony Johnson reinstated, on admin leave

A jailer and a supervisor fired in connection to the death of Tarrant County inmate Anthony Ray Johnson Jr. have been reinstated and placed on paid administrative leave, but it may not be for long.

Rafael Moreno, a jailer for nine years, and Lt. Joel Garcia, a 24-year employee, were reinstated because the Sheriff’s Office didn’t follow protocols. Attorneys for both men expect them to be fired again under a proper process.

A spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.

Moreno and Garcia were fired May 15. Their terminations were announced the next day, right before Sheriff Bill Waybourn released partial footage of what happened leading up to Johnson’s death. In the video, Moreno is seen placing his knee on Johnson’s back and putting his weight there. Johnson was face down on the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back.

Democratic county Commissioner Alisa Simmons released a statement Thursday critical of the Republican sheriff and district attorney.

“It appears that our sheriff failed to follow long-established civil service rules related to dismissing employees,” Simmons said. “Now, the county must continue to pay two individuals whose actions as indicated by investigators may have contributed to Mr. Johnson’s death.”

Waybourn has said that Moreno broke rules about putting his knee on Johnson after he was already handcuffed. Garcia, he said, did not handle the situation well as a supervisor and made decisions that resulted in a delayed response by medical staff.

Garcia’s attorney, Randy Moore, told the Star-Telegram on May 17 that Garcia did nothing wrong. He called for a medical team to come up the stairs to the mezzanine where Johnson was, and they took too long to get there. That contradicts what Waybourn told reporters at his news conference, saying that Garcia made the decision to take Johnson down the stairs instead of having medics come to him.

The Sheriff’s Office hasn’t released the rest of the video beyond when the jailers stood up and Johnson appeared incapacitated.

Moore said Thursday the reinstatement of Garcia and Moreno may be a temporary measure to give the Sheriff’s Office an opportunity to terminate their employment properly according to civil service rules.

“Whatever they do they’re obviously going to be forced to do it by the rules instead of just lynching him like they did last week,” Moore told the Star-Telegram.

He added that the sheriff’s office should wait until the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office determines a cause and manner of death. He isn’t sure whether they’ll do that.

“Every day, at least four times a day, I tell my clients don’t try to get in their heads, try to figure out what they’re going do, why they’re going do it, because you can’t do that,” Moore told the Star-Telegram. “They’re motivated by things other than what we see on the outside and what we perceive to be logic and reason.”

Jane Bishkin, the attorney representing Moreno, told Star-Telegram media partner WFAA she expects the reinstatement is a technicality and that Moreno will eventually be terminated again.

Johnson’s death has sparked outrage among some county leaders and led community activist organizations to call on authorities to be more transparent. Republican Manny Ramirez called for the county to reevaluate the policies for releasing video and other information in sheriff’s office investigations.

Staff Writer Noah Alcala Bach contributed to this report