New letter campaign demands full video of Anthony Johnson’s death in Tarrant County Jail

Read the latest in our coverage of the Tarrant County jail.

A letter-writing campaign calling for authorities to release the full video of Anthony Johnson’s death at the Tarrant County Jail has already garnered more than 250 responses.

The campaign through Action Network, which started this week, calls on people to write letters to Tarrant County leaders demanding the video’s release. In May, Sheriff Bill Waybourn released partial videos of the altercation that led to Johnson being cuffed, face down with a jailer’s knee on his back, sputtering and gasping, unable to breathe.

Multiple sources who have seen the whole video, including Johnson’s family, said the portions not publicly released are worse than what was.

Johnson’s death was ruled a homicide caused by mechanical and chemical asphyxiation. He died in the jail two days after he was arrested in Saginaw on April 19.

Earlier on the same day, 31-year-old Johnson, a Marine veteran who developed schizophrenia in the military, asked his mother to take him to a mental health hospital because he recognized the signs of an oncoming episode.

His family told the Star-Telegram he was turned away by the hospital because he wasn’t acting violently toward himself or others.

The day after he was arrested, Johnson was taken to the Tarrant County Jail. He was there less than 24 hours when, still experiencing a mental health crisis, he was pulled from his cell for a contraband check.

He resisted jailers, and they fought him, at one point pepper-spraying him before he was on the ground, the partial video shows . The Johnson family’s attorney, Daryl Washington, said the pepper spray was deployed directly into Johnson’s mouth.

Two jailers have been charged with murder — Lt. Joel Garcia and jailer Rafael Moreno — and the family has filed a lawsuit that lists several other jailers as well as unnamed employees as defendants . Garcia was a supervisor who filmed Johnson’s death on a supervisor cell phone. Moreno is the jailer who put his knee on Johnson’s back.

One attorney for Garcia told the Star-Telegram that the lieutenant didn’t take command of the scene until after Moreno stood up from Johnson’s back and that Garcia immediately called for a medical team. Moreno’s attorneys on multiple occasions couldn’t be reached for comment.

The partial video shows in grainy and shaky footage what happened until Moreno stood up. When after about 90 seconds the jailer took his knee of Johnson’s back, the Sheriff’s Office cut the video and ended it.

Multiple sources have told the Star-Telegram the rest of the video shows inaction and apathy from jailers and a John Peter Smith Hospital medical team in the jail.

The letter-writing campaign says in its description that Tarrant County leaders need to release the full footage and offer greater transparency to Johnson’s family and the public.

“The fact that he was killed while in custody, and yet the full video of the incident has not been released to the public, is a travesty,” the description reads. “Sheriff Bill Waybourn has consistently failed to provide transparency and accountability in the wake of Anthony’s death. ... But what’s even more appalling is the role that each of the following members of Tarrant County leadership has played in withholding information and delaying justice for Anthony and his family.”

The Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

The campaign alleges that Waybourn has declined to release the full video because he wants to avoid scrutiny.

It also names specific county leaders along with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, saying they either haven’t done enough to demand the full video’s release or have actively worked to keep it secret.

Multiple Star-Telegram open records requests for the video have been sent to the Texas Attorney General’s Office by the Sheriff’s Office, seeking permission to withhold the full video, citing an ongoing investigation. The Sheriff’s Office has received that permission in every instance.

The letter-writing campaign is being led by Texas, We Have a Problem! along with The Texas Poor People’s Campaign, Texas Grassroots Alliance and Tarrant4Change.