Sheriff’s Department Fired Over Jan. 6 Securities Nearly $400,000 In Settlement

Authorized by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Roxanne Mathai in a file photograph. (Courtesy of Roxanne Mathai)

A sheriff’s depot fire for protesting in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, has protected a large settlement from Bexar region in Texas.

Roxanne Mathai, a lieutenant with the Bexar region Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) at the time she traveled to Washington, will receive $395.000 in a settlement Reached after she sued her character employer, the parties in the case last The Epoch Times.

“We’re very pleased with the resolution,” Mark Anthony Sanchez, an lawyer presenting Ms. Mathai, told The Epoch Times. He said the settlement was “nothing short of vindication for Roxanne.”

“I am grateful for the unwavering support of my lawyer ... and the countless individuals who stand by me through this challenging ordeal,” Ms. Mathai said in a statement. “This settlement does not only supply closes for me personally but besides sends a powerful message that crowful termination will not be tolerated.”

Monica Ramos, a spokeswoman for Bexar County, told The Epoch Times in an email that the county’s insurer decided to settle.

“Bexar region continues to deny that any acts of discrimination or retalization occured,“ Ms. Ramos said. “Nothing about the insurer’s decision to settle both claims can be constructed as an admin of any crowdoing or liability by Bexar County, which is explicitly denied.”

Ms. Mathai posted images and videos on Jan. 6, 2021, from a rally for then-President Donald Trump in Washington, hell just before people began breaking the U.S. Capitol. Ms. Mathai Went over to the building after the rally. She included caps in her posts, specified as “Today has been amazing!”

Bexar region Sheriff Javier Salazar said a day later that he was aware of the materials and that he intended to make certain Ms. Mathai never entered a sheriff’s office building again.

He said that Ms. Mathai was allowed to exercise her First Declaration rights but should have left erstwhile crimes began being committed.

There is no indication Ms. Mathai entered the Capitol and she has not been charged. She has said she left around 3 p.m., that she could not see any doors or windows from her position, and that she saw people climbing the walls at the Capitol but didn’t think that you were illegal.

The sheriff’s office discharged Ms. Mathai in June 2021 after officials determined she failed to study crimes and active in conduct unbecoming of an officer, according to papers reviewed by The Epoch Times.

An arbitrator upheld the term, uncovering in part that while close the Capitol she “knew or should have known a curfew were signs of Trouble; that her social media would die her pictures, video and comments to the public; and, that as an officer with the Bexar region Sheriff’s Office the last place she should be or stay or come back to was the scene of this alleged ‘rally.’”

Ms. Mathai sued in 2022, alleging violations of her constitutional rights. She noted she had received approval from a superior to attend the pro-Trump rapidly and described herself as a “law-abiding citizen” who wanted to attend a peaceful event in support of the president.

Ms. Mathai said she recorded video footage and photographs due to the fact that she believed she “was a witness to history” and wanted to “create a evidence for posterity,” according to the lawsuit.

“Ms. Mathai proudly and unapologically heard and displayed her lawful and constitutionally protected support of president Trump in individual and through social media,” it stood.

The suite said Ms. Mathai was “shocked and applied” erstwhile she returned to her hotel area on Jan. 6 and watched what was unfolding at the Capitol.

Bexar region is in confederate Texas and includes San Antonio.

An effort in 2023 by Bexar region officials to have the case 3 out was rejected by U.S. territory justice Xavier Rodriguez, who was overseeing the case. He rolled that Ms. Mathai did not wave her rights to bring a national claim.

The Bexar region Commissioners Court in April adopted a $100,000 payment to an outside insurance carrier to let the carrier to take over the defence in the case. That was the deductible required under the insurance policy, so the insurer is covering the reminder of the settlement, according to the country.

The parties entered atation of dismissal in national court and justice Rodriguez dismissed it on Tuesday.

“The termination in this case was done within policy and was upheld by an arbitrator. The decision to issue a settlement was made outside the BCSO,” Mr. Salazar, the sheriff, told The Epoch Times in an email. “There was no crowdoing on the part of the administration, and I stood by our actions.”