Former Texas sheriff faces new charges of destroying video depicting man’s death

Accused of destroying evidence
depicting a man dying in police custody, a former Texas sheriff was charged
Thursday with felony evidence tampering. The former sheriff was indicted on a
similar charge last year due to the fact that his deputies crossed county lines
before making the arrest.

On March 28, 2019, Williamson
County Sheriff’s Deputies James Johnson and Zachary Camden crossed into
neighboring Travis County while pursuing Javier Ambler for allegedly failing to
dim his headlights to oncoming traffic. The deputies were recorded on police
body cam video from an Austin police officer at the scene and cameras
from the A&E reality show “Live PD” repeatedly tazing Javier Ambler, who
weighed 400lbs, kept telling the deputies that he couldn’t breathe, and had congestive heart
failure
.

After the deputies realized that
Ambler was no longer breathing and did not have a pulse, EMTs transported him
to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. Ambler’s death was ruled a
homicide due to congestive heart failure and hypertensive cardiovascular
disease associated with morbid obesity “in combination with forcible
restraint.”

On September 28, 2020, Williamson
County Sheriff Robert Chody and Jason Nassour, who was general counsel for the
Williamson County Attorney’s Office, were indicted on felony evidence
tampering charges
in relation to the death of Javier Ambler. According to
prosecutors, Chody and Nassour were allowed to access the videos of the arrest
from A&E and could have prevented the footage from being destroyed but
allowed the company to destroy evidence of an ongoing investigation.

A&E reportedly deleted the
footage after 30 days due to a policy against showing death on the program.
According to A&E, the company did not receive any requests from Sheriff Chody
for a copy of the footage after confirming that he had closed his investigation
into the arrest.

Last year, Chody lost a re-election
bid in Williamson after being indicted on felony third degree tampering with
evidence. Earlier this week, deputies Johnson and Camden were charged with second
degree manslaughter for their involvement in Ambler’s death.

On Wednesday, Travis County
announced that Nassour has been indicted on one count of felony third degree tampering
with evidence
for allowing the destruction of the video instead of giving a
copy to the Travis County District Attorney’s Office. The next day, Chody was
arrested and booked into a Travis County jail on a similar charge.

The former sheriff was released 20
minutes later on a $15,000 bond.

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