Travis County District Attorney’s Office Refiles State’s Motion to Dismiss the Cases of Chody and Nassour

Travis County, TX — Today, Friday, July 10, 2026, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office resubmitted the State’s motion to dismiss the cases against former Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody and Assistant Williamson County Attorney Jason Nassour.

On Thursday, July 2, 2026, in the 299th Judicial District Court for Travis County, defense counsel for Chody and Nassour objected to the State’s motion to dismiss.

On Tuesday, July 7, 2026, the Court denied the State’s original motion to dismiss.

During the trial in August 2024, the trial court prevented the State from presenting evidence of Mr. Chody and Mr. Nassour’s guilt. The Defense had previously argued that the State’s case was pre-empted by federal law.

Although the trial court declined to make a substantive ruling on that ground, it did rule that the evidence of Mr. Chody and Nassour’s guilt was not admissible based on that ground. Because the court’s decision was in the form of an evidentiary ruling, Mr. Chody and Mr. Nassour argued it was not subject to appellate review.

Nonetheless, the State appealed the ruling and argued that the State’s case was not preempted by federal law. Initially, a three-judge panel of the 3rd Court of Appeals agreed and sent the case back to the trial court.

Mr. Chody and Nassour then asked the 3rd Court of Appeals for a rehearing before all of the judges of the 3rd Court of Appeals. Those judges overruled the prior decision of the three-judge panel, held that the 3rd Court of Appeals lacked jurisdiction over the matter, and declined to address the question of whether the case was preempted by federal law.

The State petitioned the Court of Criminal Appeals for review of that decision, and on May 14, 2026, the Court of Criminal Appeals declined to review the case. As a result of their ruling, the State is unable to present evidence of guilt in its cases against Mr. Chody and Mr. Nassour, and filed a motion to dismiss the cases against them on July 1, 2026.

The prosecutions against Mr. Chody and Mr. Nassour arose out of their release of critical video evidence, which captured law enforcement officers’ March 2019 interactions with Javier Ambler on a reality television show. Mr. Ambler was stopped by Williamson County Sheriff’s deputies for failing to dim his vehicle’s lights and died after being taken into custody. The traffic stop was recorded by persons working on behalf of a reality television show who accompanied the deputies while they were on duty. Former Williamson County Sheriff Chody and Assistant Williamson County Attorney Nassour were accused of working to prevent the video footage shot by the show’s crew from being viewed by investigators or the public.

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