A former Bexar County Sheriff’s Office jail lieutenant who was fired after posting images to social media of herself among an angry mob that overran the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has sued the department and Sheriff Javier Salazar.
Roxanne Mathai said in her federal lawsuit that she attended an earlier rally in Washington, D.C., for then-President Donald Trump, and took selfies and video of herself among the crowd as it moved to the Capitol. But she said she didn’t enter the Capitol — that she returned to her hotel room instead.
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She said she was shocked to later see TV reports about others clashing with police and forcing their way into the building to try to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden as president-elect.
Mathai supervised about 80 deputies at the Bexar County Jail and had been with the sheriff’s office about nine years. She was fired on May 28, 2021, four months after Salazar learned that she had posted images on social media of herself at the Capitol.
A sheriff’s office spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
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The day after the attack on the Capitol, Salazar said if she was found to have participated in the riot, he wanted her to “never set foot in (BCSO) again.” The sheriff, a Democrat, said his office would launch an investigation, and that his decision would be based on her conduct, not on her support of Trump.
“If she just stood by while first responders were assaulted, it would be more than just troubling, it would be downright infuriating,” Salazar said at the time. “It makes you mad…if someone that wears a uniform just stood there, watched and took pictures.”
The lawsuit alleges the department infringed on her free speech rights under the 1st Amendment, and violated her 14th Amendment rights by retaliating against her for expressing her political beliefs.
“This is a lawsuit that fights back against political cancel culture, where employees are punished for their political beliefs,” said Mathai’s lawyer, Mark Anthony Sánchez. “That is not the America I want to see.”
She seeks damages for back and future pay and benefits, and for “acute mental anguish and severe emotional distress including…intense feelings of fear, depression, anxiety, worry, apprehension, severe humiliation, belittlement, shame, uncontrollable panic attacks, loss of sleep, loss of appetite, and alienation of affection from her family and friends.”
Mathai appealed her firing through the grievance process. The termination was upheld, but she won at least one battle: an administrative judge forced the department to change the record of her firing at the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards, which licenses jailers and peace officers, from a “dishonorable discharge” to a “general discharge.”
“She’s been winning here and there, but where does she go to get back her reputation?” Sánchez said. “To the people’s courthouse. That’s why we filed a lawsuit.”
The suit said that “the day after rioting erupted, Salazar, before investigating any facts, branded Ms. Mathai a criminal guilty of rioting, destroying federal property, and endangering human life.
“He further concluded that Ms. Mathai, while on her own personal vacation time, was derelict in her duty to report crimes he accused her of witnessing directly to him,” the lawsuit said.
The suit includes hundreds of pages of documents from the department’s internal investigation, her firing and administrative hearings that followed.
In the caption for one photo she posted, she wrote “And we are going in……in the crowd at the stairs…Not inside the capitol like the others. Not catching a case lol.”
The department forwarded the information to the FBI for further investigation. She was never charged. At least 45 Texans have been charged in connection with the riot.
Mathai had been on administrative leave on the day of the riot. She was under a 120-day suspension for advising an inmate whom she considered to be “like a son.”
She agreed to 10 days of paid leave, and the rest unpaid. She was given the option to “burn accrued time” and did so, the records show.
Her lawsuit said she texted Assistant Deputy Chief Joel Janssen on Jan. 3, 2021, for permission to go to Washington to attend Trump’s political rally, and he approved. She was on her personal time when she went to Washington, the suit said. She didn’t riot, confront or assault any law officers, or jumped any barriers, the suit said.
“She was shocked and appalled at what appeared on TV screen to be rioters vandalizing the United States Capitol Building,” the suit said. “As a law-abiding citizen with the intent of attending a peaceful rally, Ms. Mathai would never approve or condone such law-breaking. She was horrified at what she saw.”
guillermo.contreras@express-news.net| Twitter: @gmaninfedland