Texas Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Redus Family Over UIW

May 22, 2020 - San Antonio, Texas

Article By Jonathan Guajardo - Publisher/Editor-In-Chief, San Antonio Sentinel

On December 6, 2013, with classes having recently concluded for the Fall semester, UIW honors student and former Baytown Christian Academy Valedictorian, Robert Cameron Redus, would find himself driving home after a night out celebrating with friends. Christmas lights undoubtably would’ve flashed across the windshield of Cameron’s small truck as he drove past his university and continued down Broadway, eventually pulling into his parking space in front of his apartment unit at Arcadia Place. He would begin the short walk up to his apartment, but would never make it inside.

Unbeknownst to Redus, off-duty campus police officer, Corporal Christopher Carter, would pull up behind Cameron’s car and order him to come down. Redus would comply with all of Carter’s demands until he tried to arrest him without informing him why. At this point, a scuffle would ensue that would conclude with 5 shots to the small frame of Cameron Redus’ unarmed body, including multiple at a downward angle, with one to the back and one through the eye. Redus would lay dead outside of his small apartment, while only a few miles down Broadway, the university he loved would change forever in the eyes of its students and the surrounding community.

The Redus family would eventually file a wrongful death lawsuit against the university claiming that it “failed to exercise reasonable care in hiring, training, supervising and retaining” Officer Carter. Today, nearly six and a half years later, Redus’ family would take one step closer towards obtaining closure on a case that has lingered for far too long. Facing this lawsuit, the University of the Incarnate Word claimed sovereign immunity due to the fact that they are authorized by the state to enforce state and local laws through the hiring of commissioned peace officers, such as Carter, and therefore would argue that they exist as a governmental entity.

This morning, the Texas Supreme Court would uphold the ruling of the appeals court and state in a landmark 8-1 decision that even though commissioned peace officers have official immunity under the Education Code which authorizes private universities to employ peace officers, “the code does not purport to extend sovereign immunity to the officers’ private university employers.” The ruling would further go on to state that UIW “does not act as an arm of the state in its overall operations.” In short, this means that the Redus’ case against the university can now progress and the discovery phase can begin after nearly seven years of delay.

For the Redus family and many in their tight-knit Baytown community, this comes as a small victory for a senseless act. “We are gratified by the decisive 8-1 ruling by the Texas Supreme Court and appreciate their thoroughness in reaching this decision,” stated the Redus family, after hearing of the courts decision. “We are anxious to move forward with the case. Over the past six years, our goal has remained steadfast: to obtain answers, find closure and to win justice for Cameron.”

Jonathan Guajardo is the Editor-in-Chief at the San Antonio Sentinel. He can be reached at jonathan@sasentinel.com.

Editor’s Note for Full-Disclosure: I was a classmate and friend of Robert Cameron Redus while attending the University of the Incarnate Word and serving as Student Body President.

Full Text of Texas Supreme Court Ruling