FORT WORTH (WBAP/KLIF News ) – Controversy continues surrounding the Tarrant County Jail.
On Tuesday, the Tarrant County Commissioners court approved $370,000 in funding to hire a number of outside law firms to represent the county and nine jailers named in the lawsuit by the family of inmate and Marine veteran Anthony Johnson Junior.
He was killed during a confrontation with jailers in April and his death was ruled a homicide. Two jailers, Rafael Moreno and Joel Garcia, have been indicted on murder charges.
The situation reignited calls for an investigation into the number of in-custody deaths at the jail and the embattled Sheriff Bill Waybourn has fended off calls for him to resign.
There have been more than 60 in-custody deaths since Wayborn took office in 2017. He defended his record when addressing the commissioners.
“45 of those have been natural deaths and you can see what they were from…cardiac arrests, cancer, HIV,” he said.
Waybourn presented the results of a report funded by the National Institute of Corrections at the meeting.
Councilwoman Alisa Simmons noted that the report was done by inspectors from the NIC along with their consultant Falcon Group and not the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
“Until we get honest about it…transparent about it…that’s probably when we’ll come to some solutions,” she said.
Councilwoman Simmons was the sole vote against hiring the attorneys citing potentially more costs down the road.
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