‘Infuriating.’ Deputy lets inmate be brutally beaten in jail attack, Texas sheriff says

A deputy accused of allowing a jail inmate to be brutally beaten has been arrested, a Texas sheriff says.

Bexar County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Jean Camacho-Morales is charged with aggravated assault, official oppression and tampering with a government record in a case authorities say is “infuriating” and “egregious.” Camacho-Morales was fired.

Camacho-Morales, 33, was guarding a living unit in the jail on Monday when a 44-year-old inmate was attacked in a shower area, Sheriff Javier Salazar said during a news conference Tuesday. The man was beaten several times by other inmates, leaving him with face fractures and damage to his spine, authorities say.

Camacho-Morales allowed the inmates to clean up the area while the man lay injured in a “pool of blood” for up to 30 minutes before alerting other deputies of the beating, Salazar said. The inmate was hospitalized.

“This 44-year-old male victim was actually beaten several times by several different inmates involved in the attack while this person here stood by and did nothing, which is infuriating,” Salazar said.

During the investigation, Camacho-Morales initially told the sheriff’s office and the FBI he immediately that he alerted other deputies of the attack and pointed them to suspects in the jail, Salazar said. But these “suspects” actually were inmates attempting to help the injured man, the sheriff said.

“That just goes to show the egregious nature of what this person did. The fact he was nothing but lying the entire time this occurred,” Salazar said. “This is exactly the type of misconduct this country is reeling against today. People like this is why millions of dollars in property damage occurred in riots and civil unrest across the country because of folks like this.”