By August 2019, Williamson County District Attorney Shawn Dick’s emails to then-Sheriff Robert Chody were testy and terse.
Dick had been trying for months to get raw, unedited footage from a TV reality show shadowing Chody’s deputies into the hands of prosecutors. Dick argued that his office had a legal duty to gather any potential evidence and most especially information that might exonerate a defendant.
“I believe my requests are clear, reasonable, and have consistently been presented to you and your department,” Dick wrote on Aug. 17, 2019.
At the time, Chody juggled Dick’s demands while preserving his participation in “Live PD,” which had made him and several deputies national celebrities. Chody tried to temper Dick’s frustration with a lunch invitation. But over the next several months, the issue would boil over, culminating in Chody’s indictment on evidence tampering charges in the death of Javier Ambler II and the dismissal of dozens of cases stemming fr