SAN ANTONIO – A Bexar County sheriff’s deputy was suspended after an inmate he booked into jail was later found with a loaded gun, disciplinary paperwork obtained by KSAT Investigates confirms.
Deputy Victor Jimenez III on March 10 brought a prisoner into the Bexar County Jail’s south tower for processing. The prisoner was then searched by a deputy from the agency’s Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) who found the prisoner in possession of a loaded 9mm semi-automatic handgun, according to Jimenez’s suspension report.
Jimenez was handed a proposed 10-day suspension days after the incident.
BCSO officials later shortened the suspension to three days after a disciplinary hearing was held in April, records show.
Jimenez was suspended for poor job performance, conduct that would seriously impair job effectiveness and conduct proven to be detrimental to the sheriff’s office.
30-day suspension reduced to five days for Deputy Armando Reyes
In an unrelated incident at the jail, Deputy Armando Reyes was suspended five days after an inmate working kitchen duty in October was able to briefly escape through a jail annex loading dock, records show.
Reyes, who was assigned as the annex kitchen deputy, failed to initiate the proper code to search for the inmate because he did not have his radio on him.
Reyes also failed to notify shift commanders of the escape until several minutes after the inmate had been recaptured, records show.
Reyes was initially given a proposed 30-day suspension, which was drastically shortened to five days in April after a formal disciplinary hearing.