A Texas County Sheriff was indicted by a grand jury on charges of destroying or concealing video in an investigation into the death in custody of Javier Ambler, a black man, that was filmed by the reality TV series “Live PD” Monday.
The indictment comes after the incident that happened in Austin in March of 2019, when 40 year old Ambler was pulled over for allegedly failing to dim his headlights to oncoming traffic.
The incident was filmed on the reality police show Live PD, which was cancelled in June by A&E.
According to reports Ambler died after Williamson County Sheriff deputies repeatedly used stun guns on him.
Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore said at a news conference that the Live PD video would be used at trial but a spokesperson with A&E said they never aired the video because of the death and that they did not keep the footage after the initial investigation was over.
Robert Chody, a Republican who is running for reelection in November, claims he never tampered with evidence and accuses the prosecutors of bringing the case to a grand jury to save their political careers and hurt his own chances of keeping his job.
Chody was booked into jail Monday on a $10,000 bond and later released.
If convicted he faces up to 10 years in prison.
