Another Erroneous Release Just 13 Hours After the Last One



Sheriff Salazar Calls a Press Conference
Sheriff Salazar on Continuing Jail Problems

Just 13 hours after the last erroneous release, another person was erroneously released.  It appears that bond paperwork was mixed up resulting in Erica Morales being released.  Morales was re-arrested about 4 hours later.  You can read the KSAT 12 story here.  We’re not going to dwell on it since it’s not the big story.

What really matters is that the jail is in such bad shape due to Salazar’s incompetence that even Judge Wolff called him out on it and said it was a “crisis situation.”  In a press conference called by Sheriff Salazar, one chock full of dog whistles, Salazar gave us his usual, I lose sleep over it comment.  Fortunately, Dillon Collier was there to hold Salazar’s feet to the fire.

While I highly recommend people watch the KSAT 12 video, I’ll give you some of the highlights here.  Mixed in with all the patting himself on the back (See what a great sheriff I am?) Salazar says he has written some of the (booking process) policies himself.  Later in the video he says he doesn’t have any jail administrator knowledge.  Why is he writing policy about something he has no knowledge in?

Salazar says several of the chiefs don’t have jail experience but then says all the chiefs are going to have to help him with the jail.  He does say they will have to be given training but really?  He thinks a quick training session will make them sufficiently knowledgeable to see the problems in a very complex system?

One reporter points out that there have been 13 erroneous releases this year and Dillon points out that Salazar always says things are under investigation but they never hear the results.  Salazar dances around the question saying, “We’re not there yet.”  We’re nine months into the year and the Sheriff’s Office hasn’t finished their investigation on ANY of the erroneous releases?  Really?

Salazar states, “While I wouldn’t pretend I created these issues, they’re mine to fix.”  The only thing we can think of here is  that he has convinced himself this is true because his ego requires that he be viewed as awesome.  The reality is, Sheriff Salazar could not find another Bexar County Sheriff with a record anywhere near as bad as his.  He acts as if the system was limping along and just happened to collapse under him.  That is not true.  But this attitude tells us all that he is unwilling to see what is really happening which means he will never be able to fix the issues.

In the video Dillon keeps trying to get Salazar to say definitively whether he is going to hire a professional jail administrator.  Salazar knows Dillon is talking about a person to replace Chief Walker but he keeps saying yes and acting like the question is really about hiring professional jail administrator staff.  Salazar does stick up strongly for Chief Walker but when he mentioned that Chief Walker is an African American, it felt as if he was using Walker to play to the Black vote.

Everyone at the press conference keeps talking about the three sergeants who were put on administrative leave but we are hearing there was a fourth person who was walked out, who wasn’t a sergeant.  So what does that mean for the jail?  Four officers out for 10 days each comes to a total of 40 days paid for doing nothing.  But let’s not forget the jail is short-handed.  So this could very well equate to an additional 40 days of mandatory overtime since someone will have to cover those spots.  Why didn’t they just move them to a different location, somewhere out of Booking?  Salazar was asked if he had taken administrative training courses and he said yes but you wouldn’t know it from the decisions he makes.

We have a question.  Salazar said the officers walked out can’t identify themselves as being with the Sheriff’s Office while out on administrative leave.  We want to know if Sgt. Flores, as Dillon says, one of Salazar’s inner circle, was told she is not allowed to campaign for Salazar while she is out or does she get to campaign for him while getting paid by the County?  Dillon, if you’re listening, can you find out for us?

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