Tarrant County sheriff blames clerical error for failure to report jail death to Texas AG
The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office blamed a “clerical error” for its failure to comply with a state law requiring it to file a report with the Texas Attorney General’s Office on the death of a man in the county jail.
Charles Stephen Johnson died after a suicide attempt in the jail on Feb. 8. Monday marked 30 days since his death, the time limit set by state law for a sheriff’s office to file a report with the AG’s Office.
But as of early Tuesday morning, the AG’s Custodial Death Report database did not contain any records pertaining to Johnson’s death.
In a statement sent to the Star-Telegram, the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office said it corrected the error as soon as it was made aware of it on Tuesday.
A supervisor had thought Johnson’s report was filed on Feb. 21, when another report for Kimberly Phillips was submitted to the AG’s Office. Phillips died in Sheriff’s Office custody on Feb. 18.
Johnson’s report was found on the database just before publication of this article. It was filed at 7:54 a.m.
“Despite the clerical error, the appropriate protocols were followed including notifying the Texas Commission on Jail Standards and asking the Texas Rangers to open an independent investigation,” the statement read.
Missing the deadline is a misdemeanor crime, according to Krishnaveni Gundu, executive director of the advocacy group Texas Jail Project. She sent a letter to Sheriff Bill Waybourn on Monday evening to notify him of his office’s failure to file the report. Tarrant County Jail Administrator Shannon Herklotz is one of many public officials copied on the letter.
The letter cites the statute in the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure that requires the sheriff or jail administrator to file the report with the AG’s Office within 30 days, and notes that “as of March 10, 2025 no such custody death report has been filed.”
The letter also cites the statute in the Penal Code that classifies a failure to report as a class B misdemeanor crime.
Among the other recipients copied on the letter are Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare and the county commissioners, Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Phil Sorrells, Deputy Attorney General for Criminal Justice Josh Reno and various state lawmakers.
Precinct 2 Commissioner Alisa Simmons said in a written statement that the Sheriff’s Office’s failure to report was “yet another example” of his “utter disregard for state laws.”
The sheriff “clearly has no intentions of following the law and doing his job professionally,” she said. “Tarrant County deserves better than this willful incompetence.”
O’Hare and the other Tarrant County commissioners did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Sorrells’ office and the AG’s Office did not respond to emails seeking comment on any possible enforcement actions they may take.
The letter was also sent to Brandon Wood, executive director of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards.
At the commission’s quarterly meeting in February, several families of people who have died in the Tarrant County jail and their supporters requested the commission deem the jail noncompliant with minimum state standards. After the meeting, Wood told the Star-Telegram that the commission does not have the authority to deem Tarrant County noncompliant for any in-custody deaths it has reviewed.
Wood did not respond to a request for comment on the Sheriff’s Office’s failure to report Johnson’s death to the AG.
A Star-Telegram investigation published in late February found that the jail commission has failed to comply with statutes created by the 2017 Sandra Bland Act governing in-custody death investigations for the last seven years.
This story was originally published March 11, 2025 at 10:38 AM.
