By Mary Huber
Austin American-Statesman
AUSTIN, Texas — Authorities have arrested a corrections officer who works in the Travis County Correctional Complex after learning he had been falsifying government documents and lying about performing visual checks on inmates.
Carlos Luna, 21, has been charged with tampering with a government record, a Class A misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to a year in the county jail and a fine of up to $4,000.
Travis County sheriff’s officials said a supervisor was reviewing surveillance camera footage in Building 12 of the jail and noticed that Luna did not appear to be conducting “post visual” checks on inmates at times he recorded in a logbook.
The sheriff’s office opened both Internal Affairs and criminal investigations, and Luna was immediately reassigned to a position that did not require inmate supervision, they said.
Officials said that detectives found that during a six-day period in June, Luna had logged 49 post visual checks but that video evidence showed he didn’t perform 34 of them. According to the sheriff’s office, Luna told detectives he had been falsifying post visual logs for as long as two months even though he knew how important they are.
Luna has worked for the sheriff’s office since July 2017. His case is currently under review for administrative or disciplinary action, authorities said. Luna was not in the Travis County Jail on Saturday, online jail records show.
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