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Texas Deputy Charged With Murder Has Been Fired

HOUSTON — A Texas sher­if­f’s deputy who was indict­ed along with her hus­band on mur­der charges in the death of a man they con­front­ed out­side a restau­rant has been fired, author­i­ties announced Friday.

Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy Chauna Thompson’s fir­ing came after the con­clu­sion of an inter­nal affairs probe which fol­lowed com­plaints by the vic­tim’s fam­i­ly that the inves­ti­ga­tion into the man’s death was mishandled.

The inves­ti­ga­tion reviewed the actions of Thompson — who was off-duty dur­ing the May 28 Houston-area con­fronta­tion with 24-year-old John Hernandez — as well as those of var­i­ous sher­if­f’s office per­son­nel who had respond­ed to the scene.

“While our in-depth inves­ti­ga­tion uncov­ered no evi­dence of nefar­i­ous actions on the part of our on-duty per­son­nel who worked the ini­tial inci­dent scene, we did find areas in which we must improve as a depart­ment,” Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said in a statement.

Gonzalez did not offer details on these deficiencies.

“However, we will learn from the trag­ic death of John Hernandez,” Gonzalez said.

Greg Cagle, Chauna Thompson’s attor­ney, did­n’t imme­di­ate­ly return a call Friday seek­ing com­ment. Thompson had been sus­pend­ed with­out pay since she and her hus­band were indict­ed on June 8.

The sher­if­f’s office also announced that one sergeant was sus­pend­ed for five days, one deputy was sus­pend­ed for one day and put on pro­ba­tion for 30 days and two oth­er sergeants received let­ters detail­ing the need for coun­sel­ing or addi­tion­al training.

Chauna Thompson, 45, and her hus­band Terry, 41, are accused of caus­ing the death of Hernandez fol­low­ing a con­fronta­tion out­side Denny’s restau­rant in Sheldon, an unin­cor­po­rat­ed com­mu­ni­ty 17 miles (27 kilo­me­ters) north­east of Houston. Hernandez died at a hos­pi­tal on May 31. A med­ical exam­in­er ruled that he died of lack of oxy­gen to the brain caused by stran­gu­la­tion and chest compression.

Authorities allege Terry Thompson con­front­ed an intox­i­cat­ed Hernandez after see­ing him uri­nate in pub­lic, and placed him in a choke­hold. Chauna Thompson arrived lat­er to help her hus­band sub­due and restrain Hernandez.

Some wit­ness­es said they plead­ed with Terry Thompson to let go of Hernandez but that he refused.

Hernandez’s fam­i­ly has remained crit­i­cal of the inves­ti­ga­tion, say­ing deputies at the scene did­n’t inter­view poten­tial wit­ness­es and ini­tial­ly tried to have an assault charge filed against Hernandez. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/texas-deputy-charged-murder-fired-article‑1.3347128