3 Texas officers charged with falsifying government documents after death at Waco jail

Michael Crittenden, a 24-year-old correctional officer at the Jack Harwell Detention Center in Waco, was arrested Thursday and charged with tampering with government documents in connection with a suicide at the jail on Nov. 1. less Michael Crittenden, a 24-year-old correctional officer at the Jack Harwell Detention Center in Waco, was arrested Thursday and charged with tampering with government documents in connection with a suicide at ... more Photo: McLennan County Sheriff's Office Photo: McLennan County Sheriff's Office Image 1 of / 39 Caption Close 3 Texas officers charged with falsifying government documents after death at Waco jail 1 / 39 Back to Gallery

Three correctional officers at a Central Texas jail have been accused of falsifying jail documents in connection with a suicide at the jail earlier this month.

The officers at the Jack Harwell Detention Center in Waco — Michael Crittenden, 24; Christopher Simpson, 24; and Milton Walker, 33 — were arrested Thursday and charged with tampering with government documents.

Arrest affidavits obtained by mySA.com allege that all three officers lied about conducting headcounts at the jail during the early morning of Nov. 1 — hours before 25-year-old inmate Michael Angelo Martinez was found hanging in his cell.

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The Waco Tribune-Herald reported that law enforcement officials there are investigating the death as a suicide by asphyxia.

McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara told the newspaper that Martinez was in a section of the jail where officers are mandated to conduct routine checks on inmates every 30 minutes.

The affidavits, however, allege that surveillance video from the detention center shows that none of the three men conducted those checks that morning.

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All three men are employees of LaSalle Corrections, the company that operates the detention center, the newspaper reported.

Martinez, the inmate, had been in jail since Aug. 18 on a federal detainer and state charges of unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of cocaine, according to the Tribune-Herald.

jfechter@mySA.com

Twitter: @JFreports