Former Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody, who wooed a popular reality TV show in his pursuit of celebrity and to boost his political profile, turned himself in Thursday on evidence tampering charges in the destruction of the program’s footage that captured the death of Javier Ambler II.
Issued by a grand jury in Austin, the indictment marked the second time in six months that Chody has been charged for his alleged actions related to the video from the show “Live PD.” In that time, the once-popular Republican sheriff also lost his bid for reelection.
Chody’s surrender Thursday to the Travis County Jail came in a week of rapid movement in an investigation that was finalized almost two years to the day after deputies chased Ambler in a pursuit launched over a minor traffic infraction and used Tasers on him while he gasped that he could not breathe and had heart failure.
Texas deputies charged with manslaughter
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Deputies in Javier Ambler police custody death charged with manslaughter
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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