Global Courant 2023-05-05 11:00:23
FIRST ON FOX: The mother of a sheriff’s deputy who died in a car accident at work in Austin, Texas, speaks out after learning from a friend that the progressive district attorney would not press charges against the other driver in a move she called “unreasonable.”
“I was stunned. I didn’t know what to say,” Nancy Korzilius told Fox News Digital about the moment in January when she heard through a friend, who heard it on the radio, that the Travis County District Attorney’s Office wouldn’t impan a grand jury after the crash that killed her son, 32-year-old Travis County Sheriff Sr. Deputy Christopher Korzilius, was killed in March 2020 in the early morning hours after St. Patrick’s Day.
Korzilius says her son, who was on duty at the time, was driving east on a two-lane highway when a vehicle traveling west collided head-on with him, sending his car flying over a guardrail and into a ravine. The male driver of the other vehicle was traveling more than 80 mph in a 65 mph zone before losing control of his vehicle, Korzilius’ mother said.
Korzilius died in the crash from blunt force trauma, and his mother says there were several disturbing aspects to the moments after the crash, including the other driver not undergoing a toxicology test until that afternoon and his claim that he swerved to hit something in the road to avoid, which she says has not been confirmed.
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Christopher Korzilius, 32, was killed in a car accident while on duty in March 2020. (Nancy Korzilius)
Nancy Korzilius said she has served on a grand jury before and believes there was enough evidence to go to trial and she would have respected any decision made by the jurors.
“I just couldn’t believe they weren’t willing to take this case to a grand jury,” Korzilius said. “I know you can agree or disagree with a jury, but it has to get to that point before the justice system even functions properly.”
“I am very familiar with the process and realized that it is unconscionable and perhaps even unconstitutional not to give this case a chance to be heard by a Texas grand jury. , or many things can happen to them, but nothing will happen unless the grand jury reviews the case.
Korzilius says she urged the prosecution to reconsider during a phone call in February in which she wrote a statement to a prosecutor from the Special Prosecutions Unit for vehicular crime.
“Your decision has forever broken my trust in the prosecutor,” Korzilius wrote. “I am ashamed to say that I will have to spend the rest of my life trying to understand and explain to my family and friends how this decision came about and how (he) did not receive a punishment for this crime, involuntary manslaughter .”
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Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza poses in front of the Austin skyline in a portrait from the county website. (Travis County DA website)
“Now the righteousness + law for which my son gave his life has been denied. Nor has he deserved this.”
Her request for reconsideration was later denied by the district attorney’s office, which told her there was not enough evidence to proceed. Jennifer Hackney-Szimanski, director of public affairs for the combined Texas law enforcement associations and former Austin police officer, told Fox News Digital that video from a nearby company showed the other driver’s car going over 100 mph and a bend “dragged”. She said the case should at least have gone to a grand jury.
“I used to work for the Austin Police Department in types of situations where reckless, obvious, reckless behavior, they would at least present it to the grand jury because it’s probable cause,” she said, adding that she “can’t suggest” that all the evidence would not have led to “at the very least negligent homicide”.
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An aerial view shows the downtown skyline on April 11, 2023 in Austin, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Hackney-Szimanski, a Lakeway, Texas city councilman, told Fox News Digital that the fact that Garza’s office “didn’t even bother” to make sure Korzilius’ mother had the information before announcing that there was no charges would be brought, a “disrespect for law enforcement.”
Garza has been heavily criticized since taking office in January 2021 for not only implementing policies his critics say are soft on crime, he has also drawn heavy criticism from several families of crime victims who have said he is not making them a priority. has made.
“The prosecution is acting more like lawyers than prosecutors,” Dennis Farris, president of the Austin Retired Officers Association, told Fox News Digital last year about Garza’s office. “Whatever his skewed view of what criminal justice reform is, it’s not working. It certainly isn’t working for the victims. It used to be that they got the victims’ support before offering plea deals. Now it doesn’t work. It seems that he even does that because they don’t even communicate with them, and that leads to the victimization of these families again.”
Backed by progressive mega-donor George Soros, Garza campaigned for both “reinventing” policing in Austin and pledging to prosecute police officers.
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An Austin Police Department officer on patrol. (Nick Tre. Smith/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
One of those police officers, Austin Police Officer Justin Berry, told Fox News Digital that Korzilius’s story shows the “utter disregard” the district attorney’s office has for law enforcement.
“Those in the law enforcement profession take a great personal risk being a police officer, and you have to worry about doing your job to protect the community and risk getting sued by the district attorney, but then know also that even if you end up being killed and you happen to be in the law enforcement community, your families won’t be able to get any kind of justice either,” Berry said.
Berry was one of 19 police officers charged by Garza’s office, despite objections from the Austin police chief, for their role in suppressing a 2020 Black Lives Matter riot on charges some critics say are politically motivated.
“Not only is it a blatant disrespect for law enforcement, but he’s going after law enforcement while allowing people who should be responsible to get away with their actions,” Hackney-Szimanski added, pointing to a recent case in which an alleged serial public masturbator who broke a woman’s leg during a violent chase received no jail time under an agreement with Garza’s office.
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To this day, Korzilius says Garza never picked up the phone to call her.
“We can only really judge someone by their actions, and everyone I talk to is like, ‘What’s going on with this?'” Korzilius told Fox News Digital. “He must be biased against police officers.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Garza’s office said, “Our hearts continue to break for Deputy Christopher Korzilius and his family. In this case, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has conducted a thorough investigation into this matter and has not filed . a criminal complaint.”
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“Our office reviewed the DPS investigation and also did not believe that the facts warranted criminal charges.”
Texas DPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Both Korzilius and Hackney-Szimanski expressed optimism about action in the Texas legislature, particularly House bill 17which Republicans say will keep “rogues” like Garza in check, but Korzilius told Fox News Digital that real change is coming at the ballot box.
“All we have is the court of public opinion, which is a powerful thing,” Korzilius said, adding that she hopes another prosecutor could one day reopen the case.
Andrew Mark Miller is a writer at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to [email protected].
