Latest news with #TarrantCountySheriff'sOffice
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Yahoo
Suspect pursuit ends following ankle monitor cut in Tarrant County
The Brief Tarrant County Sheriff's Warrant Deputies were dispatched to locate a subject who cut off his ankle monitor and was making threats towards one of his previous victims. The suspect, Dontel Tanksley, 32, had outstanding warrants for Assault Family Violence with two prior convictions. After several hours of searching, K-9 Deputies tracked down the suspect who was hiding in a heavily wooded area and was taken into custody. Tarrant County Sheriff's Warrant Deputies were dispatched to locate a subject who cut off his ankle monitor and was making threats towards one of his previous victims on Monday, May 5, at approximately 11:35 a.m. The suspect, Dontel Tanksley, 32, had outstanding warrants for Assault Family Violence with two prior convictions. Warrants Deputies went to Tanksley's last known address, as well as the home of the victim who was being threatened. Dig deeper At approximately 2:30 p.m., a deputy spotted his vehicle in the 11400 block of Woodland Springs Dr and began a short pursuit. Tanksley's car sustained a flat tire, and he bailed from the vehicle. TCSO Deputies pursued him into a nearby neighborhood but, due to rainy weather and low visibility, the suspect was able to hide. Additional resources were deployed to the scene, including the Fort Worth Police Department's Air One, and two Tarrant County Sheriff's Office K-9 Units and a Tarrant County Sheriff's Office Drone Unit. A perimeter was established, and multiple backyards and residences were checked. After several hours of searching, K-9 Deputies tracked down the suspect who was hiding in a heavily wooded area and was taken into custody. What's next In addition to his previous charges, Tanksley is now charged with Evading Arrest, Detention with a Vehicle and Tampering with an Electronic Monitoring Device. He's being held in the Tarrant County Jail without bond. The Source Information in this article was provided by the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office.
CBS News
30-04-2025
- Health
- CBS News
A retired Tarrant County detective investigated parents who made children sick. He says prosecutors made the job harder.
Retired Tarrant County detective calls for legislative change to protect vulnerable children from Munchausen by Proxy When Detective Mike Weber retired from the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office earlier this year, he walked away an expert in an unthinkable crime. Over the last 15 years, he's arrested more than a dozen women on charges of medical abuse. The cases involve what's known as Munchausen by Proxy, in which caregivers, usually mothers, intentionally make their children sick. Weber believes the motive is often a desire for attention. "The main motivator has been something intrinsic, whether it's attention from the outside, on social media, attention from a loved one, whatever that may be," said Weber. There's not a lot of data on this particular crime, but some studies estimate that one out of every hundred thousand children is medically abused each year. Weber believes it's much more common. Investigations, though, are complex, and prosecutors, he said, can be reluctant to take the case, pointing a finger at the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office. Does the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office take cases seriously? "You have to take these cases seriously and not treat them like they're misdemeanors and, unfortunately, that's what we see in our district attorney's office," said Weber. He said he's had a rocky relationship with Tarrant County prosecutors. He worked as an investigator for the DA's office for 10 years. Now that he's retiring, he's sharing his frustration. "It was extremely frustrating to be continually lied to by people that you should be able to trust on this abuse," said Weber. The Tarrant County District Attorney declined to interview or answer questions on its treatment of medical abuse cases, but provided the following statement to CBS News Texas: "We prosecute Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy cases the same as any other case in our office. If the facts and the law support a conviction, we will hold defendants accountable." Tarrant County case studies Weber, though, points to three cases, in particular, where he feels prosecutors didn't do enough to protect Texas children. 2019 In 2019, he arrested a mother for felony injury to a child. She was accused of faking seizures in her four-year-old son and making up symptoms at more than 200 doctor visits. After years of preparing for trial, the DA's office dismissed the case, citing "prosecutorial discretion." "They dropped the case and never called me. They never talked to the child abuse pediatrician," Webber said. 2021 In 2021, another mother was accused of lying about her son's medical problems. "I was making him throw up to try to get his attention because he was in pain," she admitted in a recorded interview. "Even though we had video evidence of the crime, (prosecutors) pled her to five deferred adjudication knowing the child was still in her custody," said Weber. 2022 Finally, there is the Jesika Jones case. Weber said Jesika Jones spent years lying about her children's health, claiming her three daughters had epilepsy. It was during a visit to Cook Children's Hospital in 2022 that medical staff grew suspicious and called the sheriff's office. Weber said Jesika Jones was giving her four-year-old massive amounts of Benadryl. "I had that feeling of I'm losing my kid... I'm losing my daughter," said Derek Jones, the girls' father and Jesika Jones' ex-husband. He said he was shocked to learn about the lies. "She would take them to the doctor appointments while I was at work because she was a stay-at-home mom," he said. "She would tell one person one thing, then another person something else, but she had it set up that they would never connect back together. Jesika Jones was arrested in July 2022. She eventually pleaded guilty to felony injury to a child and child endangerment, but was allowed to stay out of jail until her sentencing on the condition that she would not be around children. Weber and Derek Jones said she quickly broke that rule by dating a man with kids. "I arrested her for a bond violation. She was allowed to bond out on that bond violation, the DA's office never sought a bond revocation hearing," said Weber. "I was like, 'Look, something's gotta happen. She's gonna end up harming some other kid,'" said Derek Jones. "But, I couldn't get the DA's office to do anything. It was more like, 'Oh, there's nothing we can do,' and I was like, 'She's just going to keep doing this.'" Jesika Jones had been out on bond for two years at that point. Three weeks before her sentencing, the DA's office asked a judge to send her back to jail. At the hearing, a 12-year-old girl testified that just a month earlier, while she was still free, Jesika Jones had befriended her father, claimed to be a nurse, and given her medicine that had made her feel dizzy. Jesika Jones' attorneys argued that Munchausen by Proxy is a documented mental health condition and said what she needed was help. "She's ready to do whatever it takes to get well," her attorney told a judge. Weber said that's a frequent defense in cases like these, but he doesn't see it that way. "She knows what she's doing. She knows she's wrong when she's doing it. That is the legal definition of abuse," he said. Prosecutors asked a Tarrant County judge to sentence her to 20 years. The judge went even further, calling her a public risk. "It's the court's sentence that you will receive 60 years in prison," he announced, prompting loud gasps from a full courtroom. It was a victory for Weber, who hoped prosecutors were taking notice. "What I was hoping is that they looked inside that courtroom and saw how many people that case affected," he said. Weber plans to keep advocating for victims Weber now worries about who will carry on the fight for the next child. "And I don't understand why the DA's office in Tarrant County wouldn't be interested in protecting children from this abuse," said Weber. "They should be partners in this. So far, they haven't been." In his retirement, Weber has offered to consult with any law enforcement, free of charge. He's also focused on helping pass legislation on the issue. While it's illegal to lie to get medication for yourself, Weber said, it's not currently illegal to lie to get medication for your children. He hopes to change that.
Yahoo
13-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Family of man who died in Tarrant jail demands commissioners seek sheriff's removal
The family of a man who died in the Tarrant County Jail last December sent a letter to Tarrant County commissioners on Saturday asking them to petition for a trial to remove Sheriff Bill Waybourn from his post. Mason Yancy, 31, died in the jail on Dec. 27, 2024, from what the medical examiner later ruled to be a pulmonary thromboembolism, or a blood clot in the lungs. Members of Yancy's family told the Star-Telegram that they believe the medical examiner's ruling confirmed their theory that Yancy was not given medication for his diabetes while in custody. Diabetes increases the risk for blood clots, according to the American Heart Association. Yancy's family is demanding that Tarrant County commissioners create an agenda item and hold a vote on seeking Waybourn's removal, according to a news release. The family cited a Texas local government code that creates a process via trial by a jury in which an elected official such as a sheriff can be removed in cases of incompetence or official misconduct, the statement reads. The legal process would begin with a county resident filing a petition to be reviewed by a district court judge, according to the Chapter 87 law. At a January commissioners' meeting, tensions erupted during a briefing about recent deaths in the jail, including Yancy's. A group of Second Amendment activists attended the Jan. 14 meeting to join calls for Waybourn's resignation, in an episode that ended with two arrests, the Star-Telegram previously reported. At that meeting, Yancy's brother Darren told commissioners that the fault for the jail deaths lies with Waybourn. 'The challenge we have is you've got a number of deaths under various employees since 2017 that keep occurring, and there's one man at the top, and that's Bill Waybourn,' he said. Waybourn told commissioners at that January meeting that Mason Yancy came to the jail with 'medical issues' and was seen by medical staff nine times in the four days that he was incarcerated before his death. 'He was in a cell seeing two nurses when he collapsed,' Waybourn said. 'Life saving stuff was taking place immediately, within very few seconds. … I think the takeaway is that all protocols were followed by Tarrant County Sheriff's Office personnel.' When asked by County Judge Tim O'Hare about reports that Yancy did not receive the medication he needed to survive, Waybourn said there is 'no evidence' to support those allegations. In November, Waybourn briefed commissioners on a federal report on the Tarrant County Jail and called it a 'Cadillac model of a jail.' Yancy's family also sent a letter Saturday to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, asking him to seek the removal of Brandon Wood, the executive director of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, according to the statement. The executive director is chosen by the nine members of the commission, who are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate, according to state law. The Sheriff's Office and the Commission on Jail Standards did not immediately respond Saturday to requests for comment on the family's demands. A Star-Telegram investigation found that the Commission on Jail Standards was not in compliance with the Sandra Bland Act, a 2017 state law that requires the commission to appoint independent investigators in jail death cases. Instead, sheriff's offices statewide were allowed for seven years to choose which law enforcement agencies investigated their in-custody deaths. 'The whole intent of the provision in the Sandra Bland Act was to ensure that it was an independent, unbiased, objective investigation, something that the public could trust, that policymakers could trust, that it isn't self-interested the way it would be if it's an agency investigating itself,' said Michele Deitch, the director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at UT Austin and a consultant on the bill. The commission began complying with the law almost two weeks after the Star-Telegram published its investigation. Since the passage of the law in 2017, 70 people have died in the Tarrant County Jail. 'It is the Yancy family's position that the Texas Commission on Jail Standards is not functioning properly through Wood's directive and has allowed Waybourn to remain compliant in the face of heinous deaths such as Mason Yancy, Chasity Congious' (baby), and Anthony Johnson, Jr.,' the family's statement says. Staff writer Cody Copeland contributed to this story.
CBS News
05-03-2025
- CBS News
Tarrant County Sheriff Bill E. Waybourn's son arrested for soliciting minor and assaulting officer, police say
The adopted son of Tarrant County Sheriff Bill E. Waybourn was arrested Monday for soliciting an underage girl and assaulting and injuring a police officer who was trying to arrest him, according to the Arlington Police Department. William Waybourn, 20, was taken into custody and booked into Arlington City Jail on charges of solicitation of a person under 18, resisting arrest, and assault on a peace officer, police said. He posted bond Tuesday morning. Officers responded to a business in the 100 block of South Bowen Road around 4:45 p.m. Monday after a 911 caller reported that a juvenile girl said an unknown man had made sexually explicit comments to her and had been following her. When officers arrived and found a man matching the description nearby, he resisted arrest as they tried to put him in a police vehicle. This led to a scuffle that resulted in an officer's arm being injured, police said. "The sheriff is disappointed in the choices his son made but has taught his children there are consequences to those actions," the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. William Waybourn is one of eight adopted children, all of whom came from orphanages or abusive environments, according to the sheriff's office. "To those who are considering adoption, please do not let this situation scare you away from that noble plan," Sheriff Waybourn said. "Advocating for children through adoption can bring blessings to both you and the children. This is a speed bump in the road of our journey, and we will all come out on the other side." The sheriff's office said William Waybourn is "developmentally challenged and faces life with fetal alcohol syndrome due to drug and alcohol use by his biological mother during pregnancy. FAS can cause a range of developmental and cognitive impairments, including learning disabilities, poor motor skills, behavioral problems, and difficulties in social situations. "As many people in the community understand, young adults with such difficulties often end up in the justice system. It is a sad reality for these individuals who don't have resources to help them assimilate into society in a traditional way." According to the sheriff's office, the cases will be processed by the Arlington Police Department and submitted to the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office for consideration. "While Sheriff Waybourn is a public official, his son is not. His family requests the respect of their privacy as they navigate this unfortunate situation," the sheriff's office said.
Express Tribune
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Charleston White arrested in Texas on aggravated assault charges
Comedian Charleston White is currently in custody in Texas, facing charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Jail records confirm that White, known for his film 'Wrong Address' on Tubi, was booked on February 18 at a corrections center in the Fort Worth area. The exact details of the incident remain unclear, and speculation has been circulating on social media, although no official statements have been made by White or law enforcement as of now. This arrest comes after a series of previous legal issues for White. In October, he was arrested in Tarrant County on charges of animal cruelty and aggravated assault, with a similar arrest taking place the year prior. It is not yet known if the latest arrest is related to those prior incidents. White has built a controversial reputation online, frequently sharing outspoken views. In a recent interview with Terrance "Gangsta" Williams, White discussed the impact of incarceration, advising young people to "figure out what he wants to do other than going to jail." He added that jail could lead to personal growth, suggesting that one could "come back and be a better person" after serving time. The Tarrant County Sheriff's Office has yet to comment on the situation, and the story may be updated as more information becomes available.
