The Bexar County sheriff has fired a deputy who was in Washington, D.C., during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Roxanne Mathai, a former lieutenant with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Department, was officially dismissed earlier this month. She has not been criminally charged in connection with the storming of the Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.
“As of June 11, 2021, Roxanne Mathai is no longer employed by the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office,” spokeswoman Adelina Simpson said in a statement. “Since she is no longer employed by the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, she will have to go through civil service to further grieve her dismissal.”
In January, the sheriff’s office said Mathai had not worked in the department since October 2020. Mathai had already been suspended for 120 days over an inappropriate relationship with an inmate. That suspension was originally a dismissal, but after Mathai contested it through the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office grievance process, her firing was downgraded to a suspension, Simpson said.
Mathai was given another order of dismissal for “participating in a protest that evolved into a riot at the Capitol,” Simpson said. The former deputy went through the grievance process for that as well, but her dismissal was upheld.
Attempts to contact Mathai’s attorney were not successful.
The sheriff’s office was alerted to Mathai’s presence at the U.S. Capitol in January after she posted pictures on Facebook from that day in Washington, D.C. Some of those pictures depict her among others at the Capitol, although she appeared to stop short of entering the building.
“……And we are going in……in the crowd at the stairs…not inside the capitol like the others,” she wrote in one post. “Not catching a case lol.”
More than 500 people have been charged in connection with their alleged participation in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. According to a database compiled by National Public Radio, at least three San Antonio residents face federal charges related to allegedly entering the Capitol building: Matthew Carl Mazzocco, Chance Anthony Uptmore, and his father, James Herman Uptmore.
Sheriff Javier Salazar said in January that he sent photographs of Mathai to the FBI to help with their search for participants in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Salazar also said in January that he intended to fire Mathai.
“I think everybody knows where I stand on misconduct, and this is certainly no different,” Salazar said. “Whether it happens here within the confines of these four walls or whether it happens in another state or another country, you break the law, I promise you I’m going to hold you accountable here.”
If Mathai wants to further contest her dismissal, she will have to go through the civil service commission to do so, Simpson said.
