Indicted former Galveston deputy had history of excessive force before inmate's death, lawsuit says

More than a year after a former Galveston County Sheriff’s Office deputy was charged with manslaughter over the death of a jail inmate, new filings in a civil lawsuit against him and top county officials allege he had a history of using excessive force dating back years before the fatal encounter, both at the jail and while working in county schools. Former deputy Sgt. Jonathan Wuneburger, 44, was charged in June 2021 with manslaughter over the in-custody death of Efrain Ledezma Perales, 47. Ledezma died Dec. 14, 2020, about two weeks after he was injured in a fall at the Galveston County Jail, where he was being held on a trespassing charge. Authorities accused Wuneburger of pushing Ledezma into his cell, causing him to fall and hit his head and ultimately die, according to an indictment.

Wuneburger, who was fired after being indicted, has not yet gone to trial on the manslaughter charges. In November, his attorneys asked for the indictment against him to be thrown out. He’s scheduled to appear in a Galveston County District Court in January. Wuneburger is also being sued, alongside two other jail officials, Galveston County District Attorney Jack Roady and the county as a whole by Ledezma’s family. The civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas accuses the officers of violating Ledezma’s civil rights and the county of concealing information about his death. The original lawsuit was filed on Feb. 18. But an amended complaint, filed on Dec. 2, added new details, including a list of alleged uses of excessive force by Wuneburger. The updated lawsuit contends the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office knew Wuneburger had “a reputation of being quick to use needless force” and “difficulty controlling his anger.” Since 2013, Wuneburger had about 33 incidents that required him to complete and file a use of force report to his supervisors, according to the lawsuit.