December 7, 2023
Austin DA Drops Charges Against Officers Accused Of Assault
Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza dismissed most of the charges against the 21 officers he initially charged with aggravated assault
Travis County District Attorney José Garza dismissed most of the charges against the 21 officers he’d initially charged with aggravated assault related to their actions in 2020 protests over police brutality and social justice issues. The Texas Tribune reports that 17 of the officers had their cases dismissed.
Instead of prosecuting the officers directly, Garza’s office and the City of Austin requested that the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division step in and review how the police responded to the protests.
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said, “These announcements will allow police officers, whose lives were upended by the indictments, to return to their services to our community.
“And the request for a targeted third-party performance review is meant to enhance transparency for our community and inform future actions as we continue our focus on building respect and trust for our police.”
Garza explained in a statement to the Austin-American Statesman that he believed the best way to cement systemic change in the police department was through an independent review. “The responsibility of our office is to seek just outcomes,” he said. “During the two-year investigation into the Austin Police Department and the city of Austin and their conduct during the 2020 protest, it became clear that systemic change is essential to make sure this never happens again in our community, and the best way to achieve that outcome, to achieve systemic change, is through an investigation by the Department of Justice.”
Following the April 2020 shooting death of a Black Latinx man, Michael Ramos, by Austin police officer Christopher Taylor, Ramos became part of the city’s protests over the murder of George Floyd one month later in May. Garza charged Taylor with murder, which ended in a mistrial in November after the jury disagreed on whether or not Taylor murdered Ramos.
During those protests, officers used beanbag rounds and rubber bullets, which resulted in traumatic brain injuries and broken bones for some protesters. Austin has paid out $18 million in civil lawsuits, with eight more pending. Since then, the city has stopped using alternative crowd-control methods and cycled through two police chiefs. Garza and Watson asked the federal government to perform a “pattern or practice” investigation in the letter. The federal government has not yet confirmed a launch of an investigation.
Garza, who was elected in Austin after campaigning on a platform of holding the police accountable, is still proceeding with the prosecution of four other officers. While the indictments have widened the gap between Garza and the police, prosecutors and the police typically have a cozy relationship as long as prosecutors do not attempt to hold the police accountable for misconduct, according to the Austin-American Statesman.
Some officers accused Garza of making a political statement with the indictments, calling him anti-police. Garza has also indicated that he will pursue charges against Taylor again, even though the jury has been deadlocked twice. The Austin Police Department was last investigated by the federal government in 2007 after the Texas Civil Rights Project and the Austin NAACP requested an investigation.
It closed in 2011 after investigators determined there was “no reasonable cause to believe that APD has engaged in a pattern or practice that violated the Constitution or laws of the United States.”