By David DeKunder
The San Antonio Express-News
SCHERTZ, Texas — A Schertz EMT has been suspended without pay after he was arrested last month for allegedly being in possession of child pornography.
Stephen Henry, 28, was arrested by Schertz police May 1 and was put on administrative leave by EMS Director Dudley Wait that same day. Wait said Henry turned himself in and was taken to the Guadalupe County Jail. Henry is free after posting bail.
Wait said he and the rest of the EMS department are finding it hard to believe that one of their own has been charged with such a serious crime.
“It was quite a shock to me and the entire organization,” Wait said. “Stephen is a good employee; he is a strong, intelligent paramedic who knows his job pretty well. Nobody saw it coming. Our folks are still trying to deal with it emotionally and mentally, dealing with a co-worker who has been accused of a crime such as this.”
Wait said he is awaiting the results of a police investigation to determine whether Henry will be fired if the investigation concludes the charges against him are true.
The EMS director said no evidence so far has been found that Henry allegedly downloaded child pornography on any city computers or while he was on the job.
“Our IT department scanned everything they could and could not find any evidence that he did this on city equipment or on city time,” Wait said.
Wait said nothing has come up to indicate that Henry did anything inappropriate with a patient while carrying out his EMT duties.
Henry has been with the city since 2007.
Before Henry was hired, Wait said his department did a background check on him, which turned up no past criminal behavior.
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