Eleven employees were terminated and six others were suspended after they were found to have committed serious policy violations in connection with the death of a 23-year-old man inside the Harris County Jail, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez announced Friday.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez has fired 11 of his employees and suspended six others due to “serious policy violations” they had committed in connection with the death of 23-year-old inmate Jaquaree Simmons in February, which was ruled a homicide by the county’s Institute of Forensic Sciences earlier this month.
The county found that Simmons who was jailed on the charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm on February 10 died due to blunt force trauma to his head and internal bleeding in his head.
Gonzalez’s announcement came after an internal investigation involving 73 interviews with 37 sheriff’s office employees and 20 prisoners in the county jail. He wouldn’t elaborate on which of the 11 fired employees were responsible for the assault that led to Simmons’ death, which Gonzalez said was out of respect for the ongoing criminal investigation into the matter being conducted by the Houston Police Department.