Here are things you need to know for Tuesday, Sept. 29:1. Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody was booked Monday into his jail on a $10,000 bond and released a short time later. He added that the move would “improve response times by getting officers back into service, more quickly.”Read more. According to the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association, the state had nearly 361,000 oil and gas jobs in 2019. But that’s down to 321,000 this year which is a drop of nearly 40,000 jobs, or 11% of the pre-pandemic workforce.

Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody Credit: via TwitterA grand jury has indicted Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody on a felony evidence tampering charge in the case of Javier Ambler, a Black man who died in 2019 after being Tased multiple times by deputies. Jason Nassour, a county attorney was also indicted on the same charge. Williamson County District Attorney Shawn Dick and Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore said in June they’d open a joint investigation into the circumstances leading up to Ambler’s death. Ambler died after a 22-minute police chase that started after he failed to dim his headlights. Michael Ramos, a Black and Latino man, died in April after being shot by an Austin police officer.

AUSTIN, Texas – A Texas sheriff has been indicted on charges of destroying or concealing video in an investigation into the death in custody of a Black man, Javier Ambler, that was filmed by the police reality TV series “Live PD," prosecutors said Monday. Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody was booked Monday into his jail on a $10,000 bond and released a short time later. The traffic stop was filmed for the real-time police show “Live PD," which was canceled by the A&E Network in June. “The Live PD video would be wholly material to the investigation into use of force,” Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore said at a news conference. Chody, who said he would not step down while under indictment, said Live PD was never contacted by prosecutors for footage during the initial investigation.

Williamson County records show Sheriff Robert Chody is facing the third-degree felony charge that is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. In June, Williamson County prosecutors announced an investigation “involving possible tampering with evidence" following the 40-year-old Ambler's death in March 2019. Ambler died after Williamson County sheriff’s deputies repeatedly used stun guns on him, despite his pleas that he was sick and couldn’t breathe. Travis County prosecutors are separately investigating the use of force in Ambler's death. His booking photo posted by the jail showed Chody smiling in a suit, standing in front of the Williamson County Sheriff's Office logo.

GEORGETOWN, Texas – Two former employees of a Texas sheriff’s office say leaders rewarded officers with steakhouse gift cards when they used force on the job. A former deputy whose use of force is under investigation told investigators about the gift cards in a recorded interview obtained by the Austin American Statesman and KVUE-TV. Deputies who received the gift cards include two involved in the 2019 death of Javier Ambler, according to former deputy Christopher Pisa. Steve Deaton giving Johnson and Camden the gift cards, and the investigator did not ask, according to the Statesman. One incident involved an April 2019 traffic stop Pisa conducted in which he used force on an African American woman.

Local and state leaders are calling for the resignation of Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody and for the deputies involved in Javier Ambler’s death to be fired. Last year, Williamson County deputies pursued Ambler in a car chase for 22 minutes, after trying to pull him over for not dimming his headlights. Williamson County sheriff’s department maintains that its deputies did nothing wrong, according to an internal affairs investigation obtained by the Statesman. Moore needs to focus on completing her 16-month-old Ambler investigation. Instead, she is trying to blame her own failures on the Williamson County Sheriff's Department,” Chody tweeted.