SAN ANTONIO – The Bexar County Jail was found to be out of compliance with state requirements for the second time in less than three months, records show.
The jail was cited for failing to meet Texas Commission on Jail Standards for face-to-face inmate checks, according to a special inspection report released Wednesday.
The failed special inspection comes after officials within the Bexar County Sheriff's Office's Public Integrity Unity found that logs for inmate cell checks relating to the death of inmate Jarnell Kimble had been forged, the Sheriff's Office explained Wednesday.
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BCSO reported Kimble's death and the discrepancies in logs to TCJS and sent the agency records relating to his death and TCJS found the agency out of compliance based on the documents sent, according to the Sheriff's Office.
Kimble died at the Bexar County Jail on March 29 after an apparent medical episode, according to the Sheriff's Office.
READ THE SPECIAL INSPECTION REPORT
Sheriff Javier Salazar told KSAT on Tuesday that while Lucio Camacho, the probationary deputy who was working the night Kimble died, should have been aware Kimble was in "physical distress," the Sheriff's Office believes now-arrested deputy Mishal Mathew was "somewhat more culpable."
Mathew, Salazar said, came in for the daylight shift and never checked on Kimble.
Mathew was arrested Tuesday on a warrant for tampering with a government record in connection with the forged documents. According to authorities, Mathew wrote that he had completed cell checks when he in fact hadn't.
An arrest affidavit for Mathew states that he wrote that he made an observation check at 8:51 a.m. but the sensor system that the Bexar County Jail uses had no record of the check being performed. Additionally, the warrant noted that a corridor deputy did not see Mathew make his rounds like they had seen in other checks.
Records show that Mathew made rounds at 9:41 a.m. and again at 10:31 a.m., the affidavit states. During Mathew's 10:31 a.m. check, he discovered Kimble "whose condition was concerning."
After Kimble's death, Mishal was confronted about the discrepancy by a lieutenant and subsequently admitted to "failing to do his observation check indicating a false entry in the handwritten log book."
Camacho was terminated and is currently not suspected of criminal activity, the Sheriff's Office said Wednesday afternoon.
TCJS requires that face-to-face observation of all inmates be completed at least once every hour and once every half-hour for inmates are known to be assaultive, potentially suicidal, mentally
ill or who have demonstrated bizarre behavior.
TCJS' special inspection report stated that "jail staff exceeded the sixty (60) minute face-to-face observations by as much as 119 minutes."