Tarrant County residents and Precinct 2 Commissioner Alisa Simmons on Tuesday, Oct. 15, called for swift resolution to a lawsuit filed by the family of Anthony Johnson Jr. , who died in the county jail in April.
The commissioners were set to vote on hiring new legal representation in the lawsuit, but the item was removed from the meeting’s agenda.
No reasons were given for the item’s removal during the meeting, but Precinct 1 Commissioner Roy Charles Brooks told the Star-Telegram it was due to the absence of Precinct 4 Commissioner Manny Ramirez.
Johnson, a 31-year-old Marine veteran, died in the Tarrant County jail in April after an altercation with guards. The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide caused by mechanical and chemical asphyxiation .
Simmons commented on the lawsuit, despite the item’s removal from the agenda.
“We need to go to mediation as quickly as possible in this case,” she said, adding that she wants the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office to represent the county in the mediation.
“I am opposed to seeking an outside law firm at this point,” she said. “I think it’s irresponsible for us to not have even attended a mediation in good faith with our District Attorney’s Office as the lead … The longer that we prolong this, we sustain the pain that this family is experiencing at the loss of their brother, son, family member at our hands.”
Fort Worth residents Julie Griffin and Charles Bilz urged the county to agree to a settlement in the case as quickly as possible.
“Respect the family, meet the family’s pledge to negotiate a settlement in the case right now, do not load up the taxpayers with hundreds of thousands of dollars of attorney’s fees on top of what will inevitably be awarded to the family as a settlement,” Griffin said. “Do your job and put this behind us, while at the same time charting a course of accountability for the sheriff and the way our county is run.”
Costs mount in wrongful death lawsuit
During her time at the public comment podium, Johnson’s sister Janell Johnson turned away from the commissioners to address county residents: “The death of my brother is going to cost you millions.”
Having the DA’s Office represent the county in mediation would be the “fiscally responsible” thing to do, Commissioner Simmons said.
The new lawyer proposed in the agenda item would have represented Tarrant County in the suit, and could have cost as much as $100,000, according to commissioners court documents, which stated that it has “become necessary to hire outside counsel to defend the parties in this suit.”
The lawsuit initially named only the two jailers who were also indicted on murder charges in the case — Rafael Moreno, who knelt on Johnson’s back for around a minute and a half, and Joel Garcia, the commanding officer who recorded the altercation — but more than a dozen other defendants have since been named.
Three other jailers were named as defendants in August, including JaQuavious Simmons, who sprayed pepper spray into Johnson’s mouth, according to Daryl Washington, the family’s lawyer. Another 10 were named earlier this month.
County commissioners have already approved hiring five other outside attorneys in the case in recent months.
A pair of lawyers whose hiring was approved in early August will represent Moreno and Garcia for up to $30,000 each. Three other attorneys were approved in September, also for up to $30,000 each.
The Johnson family has said that the lawsuit is more about spurring change in the county jail than monetary damages.
By approving another addition to the county’s legal team, the commissioners are “sending a signal out to the community that they will defend wrong,” Washington told the Star-Telegram.
“It doesn’t matter how much it costs, they will spend millions of dollars to defend the wrongdoings of jailers,” he said.
Washington said it is “ironic” that the District Attorney’s Office both leveled criminal indictments against Moreno and Garcia and asked the county commissioners for more funds to “represent an entity that we already know is responsible for Anthony Johnson’s death.”
County funds would be better spent on addressing mental health and other services that would ultimately prevent such deaths in jails, according to Krishnaveni Gundu, co-founder and executive director of Texas Jail Project , a nonprofit organization that advocates for people incarcerated in Texas county jails.
“It’s frustrating to see the county bleeding itself dry on these never-ending jail custody death lawsuits, when what we should be urgently focusing on are solutions to address the acute lack of resources for the mental health and disabilities crises in our communities that are spilling into and overwhelming our county jails,” Gundu told the Star-Telegram.
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