EDIE ZUVANICH Special to the Press
AUSTIN — Jurors in the trial of ex-Williamson County deputies Zachary Camden and James Johnson, charged with the 2019 excessive force death of Javier Ambler II, heard testimony from Travis County medical examiner Dr. Keith Pinckard as the trial resumed this week.
“The cause of death is congestive heart failure and hypertensive cardiovascular disease associated with morbid obesity in combination with forcible restraint,” Pinckard said. “Because of the struggle, and restraint procedures that were happening, all the events that were occurring immediately surrounding his death, those actions were simply too much for his heart to take.”
The doctor said he was not the first medical examiner to examine Ambler’s body, but he took over the case from the outgoing medical examiner. Pinckard told jurors it took six months to finalize the autopsy report.
Pinckard said there was no way of knowing whether Ambler would have survived if officers had stopped efforts to restrain him when Ambler said he could not breath.
Three officers were at the scene trying to handcuff Ambler when he became non-responsive: Camden, Johnson and Michael Nissen, an Austin police officer.
On Monday, the jury heard from Nissen, who arrived when Ambler was already out of the car and interacting with Camden and Johnson.
Nissen was the only officer wearing a bodycam at the scene of the arrest. During his testimony, Nissen explained to the jury what was happening as they viewed the video and said that he would probably not do anything differently, because not being able to see whether Ambler had a weapon underneath him made it important to restrain him.
“He was on a 20-minute pursuit. Some of that I heard on the radio. I saw him crash the second time. He almost hit me. Crashed a third time. There was nothing to suggest at that point that Mr. Ambler was going to comply,” Nissen said.
While Nissen was not charged in the death of Ambler, he and the city of Austin are facing a separate civil lawsuit from Ambler’s family for civil rights violations. In late 2021, Williamson County agreed to a settlement of $5 million in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Ambler’s family.
The six-man, sixwoman jury will continue to hear testimony this week as the trial continues before 299th Criminal District Court Judge Karen Sage at the Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center in Austin.
