Emails show Williamson County sheriff dodged prosecutor requests for ‘Live PD’ footage

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, which had been 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 from arrests filmed by the now-canceled show.

The emails between the county’s two top law enforcement officials highlight the two-year tug of war over securing “Live PD” video in felony cases, including drug possession and drunken driving prosecutions. The documents, obtained by the American-Statesman under the Texas Public Information Act, also provide context for Chody’s Williamson County indictment in the destruction of video of Ambler’s fatal arrest and for possible additional charges in Austin, where Ambler died.

Prosecutor said he did not know what happened to Javier Ambler

The records detail the kind of trouble prosecutors and defense attorneys across the nation say they encountered getting video from producers during the show’s four-year run on the A&E network. And the documents' release comes while the show’s host, Dan Abrams, tweeted in January, “I am confident that Live PD will be back in 2021.”

Strikingly, the argument between Chody and Dick played out as Ambler’s in-custody death and the destruction of “Live PD” video showing his final moments loomed quietly in the background. As he pressed for video in more routine cases, Dick said he did not know what happened to Ambler.

The Statesman and KVUE-TV would break the news after a long fight over records of how two of Chody’s deputies chased Ambler in March 2019 for failing to dim his headlights, how police body camera video showed Ambler gasping, “I can’t breathe,” as deputies used their Tasers on him multiple times, and how two “Live PD” crews kept cameras rolling as Ambler collapsed.

The paper also broke the news that “Live PD” had gotten rid of the footage, which never aired.

The video destruction in Ambler’s death triggered a criminal investigation that led to charges against Chody, who left office Dec. 31, and Williamson County’s general counsel, Jason Nassour, who remains on the county payroll.

Early in their exchanges, Chody told Dick he would “hold the video(s) and send to you.” Dick pointed out that prosecutors had fruitlessly sent “preservation letters” and subpoenas to producers and he worried about the contract between Williamson County and producers requiring recordings be destroyed “within 30 days.”

The issue remained unresolved when “Live PD” was canceled after the Statesman’s report in June, and Dick said recently that neither Chody’s department nor the show ever produced any raw video of an arrest.

As the matter escalated in 2019 and 2020, emails show Dick did not back down while Chody doubled down.

“I have no desire to purposely not provide what is required by law if such exists,” Chody wrote to Dick in June 2020, days after the first report revealed Ambler’s death. “You and your office continue to work against WCSO for what I believe to be political purposes.”

Prosecutors have not described evidence against Chody and Nassour, including what steps they allegedly took in the Ambler video destruction. The case is largely built on secret grand jury testimony.

Attorneys for Chody and Nassour have said that their clients are not guilty, and Chody has said the prosecution was designed to remove him from office, which voters overwhelmingly did in November.

“Live PD” has said no one asked for the Ambler video, that Chody initially asked them to keep it, and that the show erased it when he told them the investigation was complete.

In a statement Friday, the show said its production company "responds timely and responsibly to properly served legal demands concerning its footage. It has addressed scores of subpoenas and other formal demands across the country."

Separately, a grand jury in Travis County, where Ambler died, could decide by the end of the month whether Chody, Nassour and others, including “Live PD” crews, will face evidence tampering charges for actions they took that night, paving the way for a two-county prosecution.

Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza also has said that the same grand jury will decide whether to indict former deputies J.J. Johnson and Zach Camden in the arrest.

'Live PD' and laws about the destruction of evidence

Dick, who was in his first term in office in 2019, had reason to be especially cautious about making sure prosecutors gather and share every sliver of evidence with defense attorneys.

Six years earlier, state lawmakers passed the Michael Morton Act after a previous generation of Williamson County prosecutors badly bungled the murder case of Morton’s wife and wrongly sent Morton to prison for 25 years. Former District Attorney Ken Anderson did not disclose that the Mortons’ young son told police that his father was not home at the time his mother was killed. The Michael Morton Act requires full disclosure of evidence to a suspect’s defense attorney.

In a recent interview, Chody's attorney, Gerry Morris, said that although prosecutors point to the Morton Act as reason for needing the video, federal laws prohibit law enforcement from seizing unaired footage and other materials from a TV crew without going through the courts.

In January 2018, when Williamson County first considered approving a contract with “Live PD” and its production company, Big Fish Entertainment, commissioners raised concerns about the clause requiring the show to destroy its video “within 30 days.”

“We are the centerpoint for the Morton Act,” Commissioner Cynthia Long said. “If it is in the course or commission of a crime that they have this video, are you saying you are 100% sure that this does not require retention under the Morton Act?”

Nassour said the sheriff’s office had no obligation because “it doesn’t own that footage.” He told commissioners that he — not “Live PD” — wanted the provision.

“My concern on behalf of Williamson County was that they will sell that footage to some anti-law enforcement group or Williamson County hater group and they would take that footage and use it negatively,” he said.

Commissioners approved the agreement, which gave the show access to the sheriff’s office, permission to show the office's equipment and logos, and certain veto rights to Chody about what the show could air. It also held the county harmless in any liability claims involving “Live PD” crews.

But after the show began filming in the fall of 2018, and prosecutors and defense attorneys began working related cases in the spring of 2019, the issues around requiring “Live PD” video grew in significance and urgency.

Steve Hesse, then president of the Williamson County Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, wrote in a June 11, 2019, letter that the agreement between the show and county “does not recognize that the special access granted to the producers results in the creation of evidence in a criminal investigation. These recordings are evidence.”

Dick responded with a June 14, 2019, memo asking Chody to have deputies list in their reports the names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of any “Live PD” employee at the scene of arrests. Dick also asked that all footage obtained by the show — “both aired and unaired” — be sent to his office.

Nassour weighed in, again claiming that the Morton Act did not apply to “Live PD” footage because the show is not a “state actor.”

“Shawn has attempted to and incorrectly placed a responsibility on the WCSO,” Nassour wrote. “I do not believe WCSO is violating any laws.”

Dick responded, “I am not willing to risk the law licenses of my attorneys nor will I jeopardize the integrity of my office.”

2019 Williamson County emails by Anonymous EHPq5k on Scribd

In July 2019, one of Chody’s commanders, appearing to partially comply with Dick’s request, sent a memo to deputies instructing them to provide the “last name only” of any “Live PD” crew members at an arrest.

But within three weeks, as the issue concerning the video remained unresolved and some in the community raised concerns that the show negatively portrayed the county as crime-riddled, commissioners ended the “Live PD” contract.

Chody then brought “Live PD” back to town eight months later through his own agreement — without the commissioners' approval. Commissioners sued Chody over the new deal, only dropping the case after Chody lost his campaign for reelection.

Emails in April 2020 show Dick learned on Twitter that “Live PD” was returning to Williamson County and was furious that Chody’s new agreement “still does not address our basic needs.”

Chody said the names of crew members would be documented and that “all you need to do is request.”

Dick repeated what he said a year earlier: Attempts to get video from “Live PD” through subpoenas had previously proven unfruitful.

In a recent interview with the Statesman, Dick said prosecutors never received any raw video from the show, despite multiple attempts. He said that pursuing the issue in court could have involved travel to New York, where the show is headquartered, and that because most attorneys are not licensed to practice there, he would need local prosecutors to work with them —- all time intensive and potentially costly to Williamson County.

Because the contract allowed the show to delete footage within 30 days, Dick said producers could outpace their legal efforts to get the video and erase it almost immediately.

“I have tried to work on this issue since the filming of ‘Live PD.’ My requests have been made for well over a year, but no action was taken to address our concerns,” Dick wrote in April. “My office has spent an inordinate amount of time on a TV show for the sheriff’s department. We have a job to do.”

He added in a subsequent email on April 21, 2020: “If you want us to prosecute your cases, you will need to make sure that on ‘Live PD’ cases that witnesses are included and the unedited, unaired footage will be submitted in your criminal files to our office. If our requests are not met, we will decline/dismiss the charges.”

'Most of these videos would have helped the state'

Over the past several months, Dick has done just that. Prosecutors in Dick’s office have dropped or turned away dozens of cases dating back to some of the earliest stops on the show.

Dick said his office maintained only a partial list of dismissed cases, and a Statesman review of the list shows the arrests were primarily drug cases. Dick said prosecutors dismissed about a dozen cases that were already filed but intercepted dozens of others before deputies submitted them.

In many instances, arrest documents show that defendants told deputies that they were in the possession of narcotics, such as methamphetamine or cocaine. Dick said he was frustrated that he dismissed cases that otherwise would have been viable prosecutions.

“The part that is so unbelievable about this is that most of the videos would have helped the state,” Dick said in an interview. “What you are going to have is more evidence of a crime. And so those videos would have done nothing but help.”

The emails show that in response to the dismissals, Chody accused Dick of being easy on crime.

2020 Williamson County emails by Anonymous EHPq5k on Scribd

“Shame on you. Your tough on crime reputation is tainted, and our community is paying the price,” Chody wrote June 18, 2020. “In my opinion, as well as many law enforcement officers, your office has literally legalized drug use and sales locally.”

Georgetown attorney Lytza Rojas represented a client who was arrested on “Live PD.” An arrest affidavit said the 21-year-old was stopped along RM 620 and that deputies saw a passenger smoking marijuana. When they searched the car, officers found the driver also had a bag of marijuana and told officers another substance was LSD. He was charged with possession of a controlled substance.

Rojas said she was first alarmed that deputies made no mention in reports of “Live PD” being at the scene and that she only realized they were there when she noticed the film crew in officer body camera footage.

“You have people in crime scenes who are not identified by name,” she said. “That’s footage that we need to do our job, and there wasn’t even a reference to it existing.”

Prosecutors dismissed the case, and her client is now trying to get the arrest removed from his record.

Rojas said she was prepared to defend her client, but not without all of the evidence.

“I appreciated that the district attorney’s office took a hard-line stance,” she said. “Just fundamental fairness in proceedings, we have to have everything.”

Watchdog reporting

Investigative reporter Tony Plohetski revealed details of the 2019 death of Javier Ambler II in June after pursuing documents and police body camera footage for months. The reporting prompted a criminal investigation into the destruction of “Live PD” video that led to the indictment of former Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody and his eventual ouster from office by voters. Lawmakers are considering a bill that would ban Texas law enforcement agencies from making such deals with reality TV shows.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Live PD filmed arrest that led to death; sheriff dodged footage request