Death of Javier Ambler: Judge stops trial due to evidence tampering

AUSTIN, Texas – The trial of former Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody and Assistant District Attorney Jason Nassour on evidence tampering charges has been stayed indefinitely.

Travis County Judge Karen Sage granted a stay of proceedings Thursday after spending the morning arguing with prosecutors and defense attorneys.

“I've never been in a situation like this before,” Sage said. “It's chaos right now.”

Prosecutors filed a notice of appeal Thursday morning asking the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to review a pre-trial decision made by Sage, which also means they would pause the trial until they receive a response from that appeals court.

Before the trial began, Sage ruled that Chody and Nassour did not have the right to seize the “Live PD” crews' footage from the scene of Javier Ambler's death under the Privacy Protection Act (PPA), a federal law that protects journalists from having their footage confiscated by law enforcement.

A crew from the reality show accompanied Williamson County officials and filmed the night Ambler died.

Prosecutors say Sage's ruling means parts of their case are overridden by federal law and they are barred from introducing certain pieces of evidence. Without that evidence, they say, they cannot prove their case.

Defense attorneys opposed the state's motion to adjourn the trial, saying it would set a dangerous precedent. They feared that in the future the state could file motions while a trial was underway and have the proceedings adjourned if the case did not go in its favor.

After further back and forth, Sage called the jury in and informed them that they were indefinitely excused, but that the same jury would be seated when the trial resumed. Sage signed the appeal, effectively halting the trial for the time being.

There is currently no clear timeline for when the Third Circuit Court of Appeals might expect a decision.

Crews from Live PD accompanied Williamson County officers that night as they attempted to pull over Ambler for not dimming his headlights. This ensued into a 22-minute chase. When he stopped, officers tasered Ambler, who later died.

A jury acquitted the deputies accused of Ambler's murder in March.

Prosecutors allege Chody and Nassour conspired to enter into a contract with Live PD that required them to destroy rideshare videos after 30 days. They say the contract was backdated to include the video of Ambler's death, and as a result, that footage was destroyed.