AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Multiple indictments have been handed down by a Travis County special grand jury against Austin Police officers for their alleged conduct during the 2020 racial justice protests in downtown Austin, officials said Thursday.
Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza addressed the grand jury's inquiry Thursday afternoon, which is being handled by the office's Civil Rights Unit. Garza remained light on specifics, primarily due to Texas law which requires indictments to remain confidential until the person indicted has been arrested and booked into the county jail.
Sources told the Associated Press that 19 APD officers would face charges of aggravated assault. The grand jury had been considering cases involving as many as 21 officers, according to reports from Garza's office and attorneys representing some of the officers involved.
According to the AP, the number of indictments ranks among the most issued against officers from a single police department over tactics used during the widespread protests, which broke out following the deaths of George Floyd and Mike Ramos.
"A thorough investigation was conducted before our office's presentation to a grand jury," said Garza. "The facts discovered in that presentation are disturbing."
Garza said the grand jury, which was first empaneled in October 2021, has completed its work.
"We believe many protesters injured by the officers during the protests were innocent bystanders," said Garza. "Some will never fully recover."
Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon, flanked by the executive and command staff of the department, addressed Garza's comments roughly an hour later at APD headquarters. "While I respect the grand jury process, I am disappointed to hear the DA's press conference statements regarding anticipated indictments of APD officers related to the 2020 protests," said Chacon. "As a department, we asked these officers to work under the most chaotic of circumstances, and to make split-second decisions to protect all participants. The size, scope, and tenor of the crowds was underestimated by management. Officers were prepared for hundreds, when instead they faced thousands - placing them in potentially the worst possible circumstances to manage escalating crowds."
Chacon said that while not every moment of the protests could be classified as a "riot", there were significant portions where the crowds were riotous and violent, hurling rocks, frozen bottles of water, and even commercial-grade fireworks at both officers and crowds.
"I am not aware of any conduct that, given the circumstances that the officers were working under, would rise to the level of a criminal violation by these officers," said Chacon.
City Manager Spencer Cronk, who was also present at Chacon's press conference, addressed Garza's comments in a written statement. "We wish that there had been no injuries during the May 2020 protests, and the City is taking responsibility to compensate those who were injured due to actions of police officers," said Cronk. "However, any indictments will heighten the anxiety of our officers and will impact the staffing shortages we are experiencing. We are disappointed to be in this position, and we do not believe that criminal indictments of the officers working under very difficult circumstances is the correct outcome."
Austin Mayor Steve Adler, in a tweet following the announcement, called for the judicial process to be respected. "Something went wrong here, because no one should be injured merely exercising their constitutional rights," said Adler. "Our police department said, right after that weekend, that never again would we use such weapons for crowd control. I wish that city policy had been in place before this event."
Thursday's announcement by Garza's office comes on the same day that the Austin City Council approved $10 million in settlements in two lawsuits claiming unnecessary use of force on the part of APD officers during the protests.
Chacon addressed those settlements in a statement following Council's approval. "I understand the Council’s decision to settle these two cases now and our hearts go out to these two individuals who received serious injuries during the May 2020 protests," said Chacon. "When APD responded that day, our goal was to protect people gathering to exercise their right to protest as we have safely done for many years. We planned for protests with crowds that would be similar to past protests. In hindsight, we were not prepared for the heightened frustration felt by so many community members, nor the size and scope of the crowds. As tensions escalated, APD instructed our officers to use tools that we thought would help manage the crowd for everyone’s safety. However, we did not anticipate the injuries that occurred from the use of the less-lethal rounds. We now prohibit the use of less-lethal ammunition for crowd control."
CLEAT, the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, has called the prosecutions on the part of Garza's office "politicized" and called on Garza to stop any announcements until after the Democratic primary election and any associated runoffs.
Ken Casaday, president of the Austin Police Association, called the move “devastating” for city law enforcement, but also said he’s confident that no officer will be convicted. Casaday criticized Garza, calling the investigation politically motivated.
“Garza ran on a platform to indict police officers and has not missed the opportunity to ruin lives and careers simply to fulfill a campaign promise," Cassidy said.
In response to the allegations from CLEAT and APA among others, Garza said his office prosecutes anybody who causes harm “regardless of who causes it.”
"There are some people in this community and across the state who insist that there must never be accountability for law enforcement if they break the law," said Garza. "Some of them have already suggested that our office’s review of the 2020 protests have been biased and that we are targeting police, while letting others off scot-free. That could not be further from the truth."
“Our community is safer when our community trusts law enforcement, when it believes law enforcement follows the law and protects the people who live here,” said Garza.