On May 29th, 2025, George Miller was booked into the St. Charles County Jail and he was arrested by the St. Charles County Police Department on charges of felony assault and battery and property damage. Miller was unable to post bail and he remained in jail awaiting his disposition of both of his charges. From the time that Miller entered the jail, he was always problematic and made uh he often caused problems. We understand that he got off of his medications. Uh it caused other inmates and other people here difficulty getting along with other inmates and staff at the jail. On November 20th, 2025, while still in custody after his arrest date, uh Miller suffered a medical event and he was transported to North North Side Hospital in St. Peters. Uh he remained at the hospital for several days and medical staff determined that he required surgery. Uh the deputies from the jail remained with Miller as is standard practice for inmates that are transferred from the from the jail to the hospital. On December 1st, uh 2025, Deputy James Jones was assigned to guard Miller at North Side Hospital. Miller was in a single room at the hospital. Uh he was confined to his hospital bed and policy required that his hands be restrained or restrained except when necessary for medical care. While in the hospital on December 1st, uh Miller being watched by Deputy Jones, uh he Deputy Jones reported to his supervisors that at about 2:00 that evening, that uh Miller was throwing as he described it as a quote temper tantrum. Again, Miller was known as a problematic inmate. This wasn't something new. He had been in jail since May and we knew this guy had issues and had problems. And but despite Miller knowing is probably that he may be there is indication that Deputy Jones may not have had Miller properly restrained and at least one hand or maybe he had other restraints while Miller was under Deputy Jones' supervision. But Deputy Jones was less than candid with supervisors and asked about this incident that we're going to talk about here today. Uh and during the and because of all the evidence we were able to definitively determine whether Miller was or was not properly restrained while at the hospital and the department policy. Nonetheless, on that day at about 10:30 p.m. which is now about 2 and 1/2 hours after Deputy Jones reported to his supervisor that Miller was acting out a registered nurse at Northside Hospital who was assigned to care for Miller was standing in the hallway outside of Miller's hospital room during a heated shouting match between Miller and Deputy Jones. So they were yelling at each other without this heated shouting match that she described by the nurse. When the nurse went into the room she observed that Jones Deputy Jones and she described it slam dunk in the backboard. Slam dunk punch Miller with a closed fist in the middle of his chest. So the way she described it is is that Miller was laying in his hospital bed and she heard the commotion looked inside and there was a shouting match going on. And then Deputy Jones with a closed fist like this just came down hard and just slammed Miller right in the middle of his chest. The nurse later entered Miller's hospital room and observed that Miller also had a contusion over his right and his left cheek and a laceration over his eye. Miller told the nurse when she came into the room that Deputy Jones quote punched the [ __ ] out of me. The nurse reported this to her and hospital supervisor and reported this to the Dallas County Sheriff's Office. We began an investigation and evidence shows that Miller did not have any injuries prior to the shoving match that he had with Deputy Jones. And the nurse then seen Deputy Jones punch Miller. Well, when asked about the incident the next day by his lieutenant, Deputy Jones stated that Miller had chest pains and had struck him. Uh the evidence is contrary to that and Jones' statements uh are inconsistent with all the facts and Jones lied to his lieutenant when he made that statement the next day. Moreover, uh Deputy Jones never reported being struck by Miller to anyone that night before. He never wrote any such incidents in the hospital or warned as required by policy. He never wrote an incident report. He never reported any use of force or wrote any type of use of force report. So, just to put it in some simpler terms, Deputy Jones got into an argument with an intoxicated inmate being restrained in the hospital. He lost his temper with him and punched the inmate in the chest and face, splitting open the inmate's forehead above his eye. There is simply no lawful reason for Deputy Jones to strike Miller and in doing so, he committed a crime, committed a battery. Deputy Jones was arrested last night on a charge of battery and booked into the Dallas County Jail. He posted a $1,000 bail at approximately 9:00 last night and he was released just like any other defendant. Uh Deputy Jones is 66 years old. Uh he worked for the Dallas County Sheriff's Office since 2021 and prior to that, he worked as a correctional officer for the Florida Department of Corrections. In 2004 until 2021, he began working at the jail. So, Deputy Jones had about 22 years experience as a correctional officer before he was fired in uh as part of with the Department of Corrections. Uh he was fired uh immediately upon his arrest last night. So, you know, these things happen. Uh it's not reflective of the Dallas County Sheriff's Office. as I said, what the evidence shows is that there was a screaming match between Jones and Miller. Jones did that as a deputy sheriff should have. He did act professionally to escape the situation. He also said that he had a small opening in Miller's eye, puncturing it in the process. He poked his eye. He's got to be held accountable for that. So, he's treated like everybody else. He's charged with aggravated battery with a firearm. We always are forthright and transparent with these things that happen. Occasionally, they do happen. It's not a big deal, but we have an adequate number of deputies here on a daily basis. We have these things happen over time, but we always hold people accountable and it's things that happen. Does anybody have any questions? >> Sheriff, is it a standard procedure to just have one deputy with an inmate? Could that change? You know, how is that? >> I can't get into all of the specifics, so hospital security is something we don't do because that could give away our security tactics, but there are times where I can't okay because sometimes we have multiple deputies and I'm not saying they were wrong at the time. When we have other inmates in the hospital, there's a lot of staff around. We have adequate personnel there. In this particular case, at that moment, it was a one-on-one situation. >> And the nurse just kind of seen something saying something and she, you know, saw what wasn't correct and kind of what are your thoughts on that? >> Yeah, I mean she did her job. She did what was right. Obviously, she was concerned about what she saw. It probably wasn't right. She did the right thing. Absolutely the right thing. She did what she should have done. There's no question that Jones is wrong. He did everything wrong. And he wasn't following policy anyway. Again, he said he was lying about stuff. The then they thought it was a proper way to restrain him until they could figure out exactly what was restrained or not. And then he just knocked him off, okay? So, that's what we do. You know, we will figure out that's something new. We got nothing that makes sense. So, we have 3,200 people out there. So, you know, I mean he is a good professional at what he do, but he lost his cool. He lost his temper. He punched him in the chest as I said. He slammed down hard on his chest and punched him in the face probably with his fist. And it was something similar to what he did to the other guy. So, you know, that that's bad. And he's out. >> Sheriff, we just will this give it a chance now to sort of reiterate these policies to make sure that other deputies won't lose their temper on like this again? >> Yeah, we have almost 2,000 employees here, 1,500 deputies. 1,499 of them are like that. You have your policies and procedures defined. This is the police department of your deputies. Occasionally, uh you know, something like this happens. Uh and you know, Don said 22 years as a professional officer. A lot of time in the police department practices as an officer. Yeah, last four years he was a deputy. Uh never had any issues or problems. Uh and he lost it. So, I don't think this is one of those things where we don't need a policy or procedure. We don't need to send a message. Everybody gets the message. Well, that's the environment you work in. You're professional. You don't want to act professionally. You don't want to be calm and cool and this guy just you know, he he lost his cool. So, this is one of those things that are not normal. And that's one of those things that you know, it could happen again. You know, every so often you have a situation where somebody does something that they shouldn't do. This is one of those cases, but when that happens, yeah, the message is sent. You're going to be treated like everybody else. We're going to be forthright and transparent about it. We're going to call it what it is. And you know, we're going to get him to sleep in the middle of the night. So, >> All right. >> Were there any other incidents uh with this deputy in the past, or was this more of a one strike and you're done, you're fired? >> No. I don't like that.