Houston Police Fire Former Jail Guard Filmed Brutalizing Detainees, Charges Against Three Other Guards Dropped
The Houston Police Department (HPD) fired Off. Deven Ortiz on January 7, 2025, following an investigation into multiple alleged uses of excessive force while he worked as a guard at the Harris County Jail (HCJ). That followed dismissal of charges against three other HCJ guards for assaulting a detainee, after outgoing County District Attorney (DA) Kim Ogg found insufficient evidence to prosecute them.
Those three jailers—John Ziesemer, Ezihuo Osiminibeke and Jimmy Poole—were indicted for simple assault by a grand jury for a beatdown they gave detainee Adael Gonzalez Garcia after his DWI arrest in November 2022. All three were relieved of duty and reassigned by Sheriff Ed Gonzalez; Osiminibeke also served a one-day suspension.
Charges were dropped against Ziesemer in November 2024, when Osiminibeke was allowed to enter a pretrial diversion program—after which his charges will also be dismissed. Both have since returned to guard duty at HCJ. Poole was set to join them after completing prerequisites to dismissal of his charges: two in-person courses at the County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) academy, including “Interpersonal Communication in a Correctional Facility.”
“It’s horrible,” said Houston attorney Randall Kallinen, who is representing Gonzalez-Garcia in a civil suit for damages against the County. “They almost killed him,” Kallinen added, noting that his client was left in a coma after the attack that “might cause him to be disabled for the rest of his life.”
Fourth Jailer Accused of Excessive Force
Ortiz resigned from his job at the jail in April 2024 amid multiple internal investigations into his alleged uses of force then underway by HCSO. Nevertheless, his jail supervisor called his employment “favorable” when contacted by the HPD. Ortiz was then hired and graduated from the police academy in November 2024, when he began work as an officer on probationary employment status.
The following month he was placed on desk duty—not because the HPD further investigated his jail employment, but after video surfaced capturing two incidents when Ortiz apparently used excessive force against restrained detainees at HCJ.
In one recording from October 2023, he can be seen punching the head of a handcuffed detainee seated on a holding cell bench. In another shot near a bank of jail elevators in January 2024, he shoved a handcuffed detainee against a wall and then to the floor, pinning her there with his elbow before picking her up and again throwing her to the wall and the floor. Other guards present on both occasions either joined in the attack or failed to intervene. They were not named, nor were the victims, whose injuries were also not described.
Michele Deitch, who runs the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, said she was “very disturbed” by the videos.
“What I was watching was out and out abuse,” she said. “There is no risk, there is no imminent risk to the officer … The person is not showing any signs of fighting, they’re restrained, they’re under control and force is not justified in those situations.”
HCSO promised to complete its reviews and recommend any charges to the office of newly elected County DA Sean Teare. As of January 30, 2025, none had been filed.
Meanwhile, the suit that Kallinen filed for Gonzalez-Garcia remains pending in federal court for the Southern District of Texas, and PLN will update developments as they are available. See: Garcia v. Harris Cty., USDC (S.D. Tex.), Case No. 4:23-cv-00542.
Additional sources: Houston Chronicle, Houston Landing, KHOU
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