SAN ANTONIO – It’s been a month-and-a-half-long battle for information with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office following the death of a man being booked into jail.
According to the BCSO, a Taser was used on Emmanuel Mora and he was restrained after acting combatively this summer.
KSAT Investigates requested body camera and surveillance camera footage from that night, but we’ve been roadblocked every step of the way.
On August 27th Emmanuel Mora died less than 2 hours after being brought here on a drug warrant. @BexarCoSheriff officials in a statement say he was combative and not complying. A Taser was used on Mora and he was placed in handcuffs. pic.twitter.com/xcNz9kIS80
— Leigh Waldman (@LeighWaldman) October 11, 2023
Emmanuel Mora’s death
According to a statement from Bexar County Sheriff’s Office officials, Mora was arrested by Balcones Heights Police around 7:09 p.m. on Aug. 27 on a drug warrant.
He was taken to the Justice Intake and Assessment Annex to begin the intake process and have his warrant verified by BCSO booking deputies.
BCSO writes that Mora was “agitated” and “refused to be searched,” so deputies attempted to put him in handcuffs.
At 7:57 p.m., booking deputies called for backup, and a medical unit was also called because of “Mora’s unusual behavior.”
Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) deputies used a Taser on the 37-year-old and then sat him down to wait for medical evaluation.
Their report continues on to state Mora allegedly got combative again and was put on the ground by deputies who then “placed handcuffs on him.”
By 8:15 p.m., Mora was unresponsive. A minute later, deputies sat him up and medical staff gave him the first dose of Narcan.
Medical staff began CPR while also giving two more doses of Narcan.
Emergency Medical Services (EMS) arrived at 8:40 p.m. and took over lifesaving measures.
By 9:01 p.m., less than two hours after arriving at the JIAA, Mora was dead.
BCSO’s Criminal Investigations Division, Internal Affairs and Public Integrity Unit will investigate the in-custody death.
The Karnes County Sheriff’s Office will also open an investigation per the Sandra Bland Act.
In a custodial death report filed with the Attorney General’s Office, the use of a Taser was not mentioned. The report further explains Mora was placed in hand and leg restraints.
Requests for information
The day after Mora’s death, Aug. 28th, KSAT Investigates filed two open records requests seeking copies of body-worn camera footage and surveillance footage of the JIAA that shows what happened to Mora to verify the information from BCSO.
Per the Texas Public Information Act, “If an exception might apply and the governmental body wishes to withhold the information, the governmental body generally must, within 10 business days of receiving the open records request, refer the matter to the OAG for a ruling on whether an exception applies.”
After 15 days with no response to our request, KSAT Investigates sent another request, this time to the BCSO public information officer group.
The next day, the request was closed out with this message: “The material related to this request are being withheld pursuant to Section 552.101, which encompasses section 418.182 of the Government Code.”
We weren’t the only ones facing this roadblock.
Irene Mora, Emmanuel’s sister, said she’s been in constant agony since her brother died in BCSO custody.
“I don’t think I’ll ever have peace without those answers. Never,” Irene said. “I just think about him, about what it was like when he was around. That’s my day-to-day.”
Like the KSAT Investigates team, Irene filed an open records request asking for footage of that night.
“I just want to see what happened, and I’m not being allowed to see it,” Irene said.
In our appeal to the open records rejection, KSAT brought up state law, which generally requires an Office of Attorney General ruling before a request can be closed.
We also pointed to BCSO’s own critical incident video release policy, which county commissioners pushed to change last year.
The policy now requires the BCSO to release video of custodial deaths within 10 days; however, the policy backtracks, giving the sheriff a 30-day timeline. Both have been missed in Mora’s case.
In an email responding to this distinction, Adelina Simpson with BCSO stated the 30-day timeline is “if the footage is being released.”
On September 22nd, 25 days after our request was initially submitted, a letter was finally sent to the OAG’s office for the body-worn camera request.
However, the surveillance camera video request was still being blanketly denied.
Simpson, via email, stated the facility footage was deemed confidential by law, stating Texas Government Code Section 418.176-418.182 and the Public Information Act Section 552.108 (f).
We checked the sections she sent over and nowhere in that code was it explicitly stated that the jail intake center is confidential by law and would not require an AG ruling.
At that point, KSAT Investigates formally requested the BCSO seek that ruling and send a letter to the Office of the Attorney General.
After a week with no response, KSAT Investigates sent a follow-up email stating “no response is unacceptable.”
Simpson then responded and stated the investigating agency, Karnes County Sheriff’s Office, requested the video not be released.
Irene’s attorney, Dan Packard, got the same answer from BCSO when he also requested the footage be released. He asked the Karnes County investigator directly via email.
“I have no objection to Bexar County releasing the video because it’s not going to impact my investigation. I’ve already seen it. We sent the written permission from Karnes County, which is what they said we had to have before they would release the video. And it’s been crickets ever since,” Packard said.
Packard provided a copy of the email from that investigator. In it, the investigator Chad Adams writes, “As the lead investigating agency, I will not oppose the video being released on a limited scale at this time. However, I and by extension, the Karnes County Sheriff’s Office, do not have authority over what BCSO decides to do.”
Adams also explains in the email that he does not have possession of the surveillance footage of Mora’s death, only that he viewed it but that it is still the property of BCSO.
On October 4th, 37 days after the open records request was filed, and after explicitly requesting the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office get the OAG’s office involved multiple times, a letter was finally sent.
“Let the sunshine shed light on the facts and then let the chips fall where they fall,” Packard said.
“We can’t, we can’t have peace without it,” Irene said.
The KSAT Investigates team filed a complaint with the Attorney General about this back and forth with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office and is currently awaiting a response.