Sheriff Javier Salazar’s Administration is Costing Lives



Sheriff Javier Salazar
Javier Salazar – photo from Bexar.org

Sheriff Javier Salazar is facing another incident due to the utter incompetence of his administration.  Fortunately the KSAT 12 Defenders aren’t buying his usual fluff and spin approach and  in another excellent piece of reporting, nailed the Sheriff’s Office on their failure to place an individual on suicide watch.

In the latest incident, a 19 year old woman was arrested on the 6th of July.  A report was generated stating that the inmate said she was going to kill herself the first chance she got.  Yet the woman was not put on a suicide watch.  The young woman hung herself on July 27th and is now on life support.

Last time the S.O. tried to blame SAPD for their mistakes.  This time the statement is that they, “involved University Health Systems staff and adhered to the recommendations of their doctors.”  So it’s the doctor’s fault this time.  If that’s the case, then what do they have IA and the Public Integrity Unit investigating?  What are they looking for if it was just a matter of doing what the doctor said?  Could it be that there is still protocol that should have been followed regardless of what the doctor said?

We have no doubt that Sheriff Salazar will find someone to pin the blame on, throw them to the wolves and then pat himself on the back in front of the media, saying what a good job he’s doing but we have a question.  Through the years we have been writing about the jail we have heard different sheriffs refer to the blotter report.

The blotter report is a report that is generated daily and lists every jail report that is created on that day.  It has a small summary of what happened for each report.  The blotter report is emailed to a group of people, again, daily.  We don’t know who all gets it but we do know that past sheriffs got it and for sure the jail administrator would get it.  Knowing that problems are occurring, why didn’t someone ask, ‘this person is threatening suicide, what’s being done about that?’

Sheriff Salazar, this sits squarely on your shoulders.  We can only see three possibilities.  1.  You read about her threats of suicide but didn’t care.  2.  You got the blotter report but never bothered to read it.  3.  You never got the blotter report because you didn’t want to be bothered with it and told them to take your name off the list of recipients.  Not a single one of those options is acceptable.

We do feel that Chief Avery Walker bears a lot of responsibility in this situation, he could have looked into it also, but the bulk of the responsibility is on you.  You are the sheriff.  You know you are having problems.  You should be going the extra mile.  Bexar County pays you a very decent wage but the taxpayers do expect some value for that pay.  All we’ve gotten so far, is incompetence and blood on your hands.

UPDATE 08/01/19:  

We had no doubt this one was coming.  KSAT 12 researched the Sheriff’s Office claim that they, “involved University Health Systems staff and adhered to the recommendations of their doctors.”  In the new article posted by KSAT 12,  “the teenage inmate was placed in solitary confinement against the recommendations of UHS staff.”  AGAINST their recommendations.  That flies in the face of what the Sheriff’s Office said.

Now to be fair, PIO Deputy Johnny Garcia responded by doubling down on his original insinuation of it being UHS’s fault with a more detailed statement.  The problem with that is, I believe he’s the same person who tried to blame an erroneous release on SAPD.  When we all know that the Sheriff’s Office has people who spend their time trying to spin the screw-ups that the Sheriff’s Office makes, it’s hard to believe anything coming from them.

Medical records tend to be extremely detailed.  The Sheriff’s Office has already been caught falsifying records in previous incidences.  It will be interesting to see if something comes out proving what was said one way or the other.  HIPPA regulations may interfere but maybe just the part stating not to put her in solitary confinement can be released so we know if UHS really did make that determination.

One thought on “Sheriff Javier Salazar’s Administration is Costing Lives

  1. Rachel

    That is all true finally we can get answers my brother was HOG TIED FOR MORE than. 3 hours one inmate died that morning then another an now is poor woman that asked for help they don’t care they allow those things to happen then cover up an protect each other’s ass.Fire his ass

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