A new lawsuit is pulling back the curtain on how Bexar County deputies handled a late-night medical emergency — and how the Sheriff’s Office allegedly worked to bury the evidence.

The case centers on a November 18, 2023 call for help, when a San Antonio mother dialed 911 after her 16-year-old son ingested hallucinogenic mushrooms and began panicking. She asked for EMS only, no lights or sirens, hoping to keep the situation calm. Instead, deputies Claudia Garza and Marc Patino arrived in patrol units.

A Welfare Call Turns Violent

According to the family’s account, the teen was seated between his parents when Garza lunged without warning and grabbed his wrist. Startled, the boy blocked her hand — a reflex that Patino allegedly met with a knee to the jaw and neck, slamming the teen to the ground.

Parents shouted that their son couldn’t breathe. Instead of easing up, the deputies handcuffed the teen, dragged him outside, and locked him in a patrol car. Paramedics were kept away for more than 30 minutes, despite the teen’s visible distress.

When EMS was finally allowed in, staff injected heavy sedatives — ketamine and Versed — before rushing him to Methodist Children’s Hospital. Records later confirmed facial bruising, a bloody nose, and jaw trauma consistent with knee pressure. In a hallway conversation captured at the hospital, Patino reportedly admitted: “He wasn’t physically aggressive until we got aggressive with him.”

Threats Inside the Home

The lawsuit also describes deputies threatening the parents: Garza allegedly pointed a Taser at the father, warning, “Back up or you’re next,” while Patino threatened to arrest the mother for “interference.”

Hospital staff determined the boy did not meet criteria for psychiatric detention under Texas law. Yet deputies still charged him with assaulting an officer and criminal mischief — charges prosecutors have left untouched for nearly two years.

Allegations of a Cover-Up

The family filed a formal complaint, sparking an internal affairs review. Every allegation was marked “not sustained.” Body-camera footage was withheld. When the Texas Attorney General ordered the Sheriff’s Office to release the video, officials claimed the files were “damaged.”

Public-information requests for EMS tapes, CAD logs, and radio traffic have been met with silence. The family argues this reflects a broader custom inside Bexar County: protect the department first, bury the evidence later.

Broader Questions

The lawsuit doesn’t just target individual deputies. It points at the county’s policies: the lack of crisis-intervention training, the pattern of delaying medical access, the “not sustained” rubber stamp on internal affairs complaints, and a practice of suppressing public records.

It also raises a parental-rights issue: while held in juvenile detention, the boy reportedly received immunizations without his parents’ consent — a move the family says violated both county policy and constitutional rights.

What’s at Stake

This case is bigger than one night. It asks whether Bexar County law enforcement is equipped — or even willing — to handle a teenager in medical crisis without turning it into a criminal incident. It questions why records vanish or are declared “damaged” whenever the Sheriff’s Office faces scrutiny.

The family is seeking damages, accountability, and reforms that would require deputies to treat juvenile medical emergencies with medical responses, not violence.

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