A Texas police officer is facing violent felony charges after she was accused of tasing her three young children at her Houston-area home.
Xochitl Ortiz, 34, was fired from her job as a deputy constable in Harris County following her arrest earlier this week. Ortiz, a two-year veteran of the force, was hit with three counts of bodily injury to a child under 15.
According to court documents reviewed by The Daily Beast, Ortiz “drive-stunned” the children, 8, 11, and 12, in early April, allegedly shocking the three on the hand, shoulder, and buttocks with a department-issued Taser belonging to her boyfriend—who worked alongside Ortiz as a Harris County deputy.
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Drive-stunning is described by Axon, the company that manufactures Tasers, as a “pain compliance option.” Rather than launching an electrical probe from the device, drive-stunning requires the user to physically “push (drive) the front of the [Taser] firmly against the body of the subject,” Axon tells customers.
“Simply ‘touching’ the [Taser] against the subject is not sufficient,” the product page says. “The subject is likely to recoil and try to get away from the [Taser]. It is necessary to aggressively drive the front of the [Taser] into the subject for maximum effect.”
Ortiz’s children reported the alleged abuse to their father, and that they “do not feel safe” in her home, a probable cause finding prosecutors filed in Harris County District Court states, adding that the boys “made consistent statements of abuse” by their mom to state child protection workers. Ortiz and the children’s dad are currently going through a divorce.
The Taser in question belongs to Ortiz’s boyfriend, Christopher Worthington, according to the probable cause finding. He was present when Ortiz attacked the kids, prosecutors say, explaining in court filings that Worthington’s “conduct and duty issued Taser are instigated in the allegations.”
Worthington has not been charged, but was terminated by the Harris County Constable’s Office once the allegations came to light. Worthington hung up immediately when reached by phone on Saturday by The Daily Beast.
Ortiz was initially ordered held on $450,000 bond, an amount subsequently lowered to $150,000. In an affidavit of her present financial condition filed with the court, Ortiz claimed to have a total of $300 in the bank, and $4,676 in monthly expenses. She listed her total monthly income at $2,500.
“The bond amount is necessary to… ensure safety of [Ortiz’s kids] and community,” prosecutors said in a court filing.
On Saturday, Ortiz was no longer listed as an inmate at the Harris County Jail, indicating that she managed to raise the necessary funds in the period since her arrest on Wednesday.
She is forbidden under the terms of her release from coming within 200 feet of her sons, Worthington, or anyone under the age of 17, Judge Brock Thomas ordered. Ortiz is also barred from drinking any alcohol, possessing any firearms or less-than-lethal weapons, even toy guns.
Ortiz was unable to be reached on Saturday for comment. Before becoming a deputy, she worked for a private ambulance service owned by her father, Enedino Chavez, according to public records.
Contacted by phone by The Daily Beast on Saturday, Enedino Chavez, Ortiz’s father, declined to comment on the charges, citing advice from Ortiz’s lawyer, Russell Allan Neumann. Neumann did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Saturday. In a statement provided Friday to local ABC affiliate KTRK, Neumann said Ortiz “maintains her innocence” and that she plans to fight the case.
In a statement, Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman, Ortiz and Worthington’s now-former boss, said his office “wants to maintain the pride in our agency and our profession and we can only do that by fully investigating any allegations of wrongdoing.”
