A former deputy sheriff won a $400,000 settlement after claiming that she was fired in retaliation for attending the January 6 Trump rally.
Lt. Roxanne Mathai, a deputy sheriff in Bexar County, the home of San Antonio, Texas, was given permission by her boss to attend the Trump rally in Washington, D.C., with some friends. While there she posted to her Facebook page numerous photos of the event, wanting to record the event for posterity.
She never entered the Capitol, and left the event before agitators infiltrating the crowd moved it to attack the building, and was horrified to see the event devolve into a staged riot while watching it from her hotel room later that evening. She was never charged by any law enforcement agency for violating any law.
However, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, a Democrat, said when he learned of her attendance and her postings on her Facebook account that he determined she would “never set foot inside” the sheriff’s office again.
Said Salazar, “To know that somebody at some point that wore this uniform stood by and watched and took pictures, I don’t know what her general attitude was about that. That’s infuriating.”
Salazar bought the canard that the Trump rally was an “insurrection” and a “terrorist” event intentionally created by Trump to overthrow the 2020 election, saying: “I believe it — that the insurrection itself was a terrorist act, and she was there in support of it. I believe she was there in full support of a terrorist incident.”
Mathai was fired after a four-month investigation. Efforts to reverse the decision were rebuffed. In September she was dishonorably discharged from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement for “criminal misconduct.” That discharge greatly diminished her ability to find other work. While the arbitrator in the matter ruled against her, there was sufficient evidence to show that that discharge was an overreach, and her standing was changed to a “general discharge.”
In 2022 she filed a lawsuit against the department and Salazar, complaining that her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights to free speech and assembly were violated.
In an interview Mathai said, “I feel that Sheriff Salazar’s actions towards me was nothing but political bias. He clearly campaigned for Biden in the 2020 election in uniform, walked around with BLM and so forth. But how was it not right … that I go to a rally on January 6, when I did not commit any crimes?”
Mathai’s attorney, Mark Anthony Sanchez, made the announcement of the settlement: “We are pleased to announce that a settlement has been reached in the case of Roxanne Michele Mathai versus Bexar County, Texas and Javier Salazar. This outcome reaffirms our commitment to defending sacred First Amendment rights enshrined in our Constitution and holding accountable those who seek to violate them.”
Salazar was unrepentant over his actions, saying that the insurance company holding the county’s liability insurance policy intervened and took over the defense:
The termination in this case was done within policy and was upheld by an arbitrator. The decision to issue [this] settlement was made outside [of my agency].
There was no wrongdoing on the part of the administration, and I stand by our actions.
In other words, had the insurance company not intervened the years-long lawsuit would have continued. Some call it “the process is the punishment.”
Mathai is relieved: “I am grateful for the unwavering support of my attorney … and the countless individuals who stood by me throughout this challenging ordeal. This settlement not only provides closure for me personally but also sends a powerful message that wrongful termination will not be tolerated.”
This thwarts the message that Sheriff Salazar hoped to deliver — that standing up for Trump is a terrorist act that must be punished.
