911 operator who disconnected multiple emergency calls sentenced to jail
Creshanda Williams, a former 911 operator, was sentenced to 10 days of prison term in Harris County Jail and up to 18 months of probation Wednesday after she was found guilty of often hanging up on people calling for emergency services.
Williams, 44, worked as an emergency calls operator in Houston Emergency Center till October 2016.
She was later fired from her job after an audit revealed that she had answered an abnormally high number of calls which lasted less than 20 seconds, according to reports.
Williams later admitted to hanging up on people after she was interrogated by Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg's office.
She admitted that the disconnected calls from people seeking emergency aid were made between October 2015 and March 2016. She reportedly told the investigators that she did not feel like talking to people.
The jurors, at the end of Williams three-day trial, found her guilty of interference with emergency calls, reports state.
Assistant District Attorney Lauren Reeder said: "The citizens of Harris County rely on 911 operators to dispatch help in their time of need. When a public servant betrays the community’s trust and breaks the law, we have a responsibility to hold them criminally accountable."
Williams' attorney, Franklin Bynum, had reportedly argued that his client " was going through a hard time in her life" at the time when she hung up on multiple people calling for emergency aid.
The attorney also added that "punishing her doesn't do anything to fix the problems that still exist at the emergency center."
Reports state that the emergency center's database also kept records of the call taker, the caller and the operator who disconnected the call.
Investigators, after going through the database, found out that Williams repeatedly disconnected calls of people who had called to report homicides, robberies and speeding vehicles.
In one instance, Williams received a call from Jim Moten who was calling to report two vehicles racing on a highway, which was prone to accidents. Williams, however, appeared disinterested and without hearing the details, said: "Ain’t nobody got time for this. For real" and disconnected the call.