San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Convicted firefighter is seeking new trial
A fired San Antonio Fire Department paramedic sentenced to probation for striking his 18month-old daughter and assaulting his then-girlfriend in two incidents of family violence has indicated that he may appeal his conviction and seek a new trial.
An attorney for Barry Uhr, a and paramedic and fire engineer, wrote in a court filing May 4 that a juror at Uhr’s trial engaged in questionable behavior that could amount to misconduct.
“If we are allowed to complete the juror interviews, obtain affidavits and have a hearing, Mr. Uhr can establish his right to a new trial,” Mark Stevens, a wellknown local attorney, wrote.
Uhr, a 17-year veteran of the department, was arrested in 2018 after he yanked his daughter away from his then-girlfriend during an argument, inadvertently striking the infant’s head against a garage door.
Six months later, in December 2018, Uhr punched another woman in the forehead and choked her during an argument at his home in East Bexar County, resulting in visible bruising and swelling to her right temple.
Uhr, 45, was convicted by a jury in March of continuous family violence, a felony, for both attacks. After the verdict, prosecutors dropped two other family violence charges Uhr faced in connection with the two attacks.
Judge Stephanie Boyd, who presided over Uhr’s trial, denied Stevens’ motion for a continuance to delay sentencing as his lawyer investigated the allegations of juror misconduct.
Instead, Boyd went ahead with the sentencing May 4, placing Uhr on five years’ probation and ordering him to enroll in a batterer’s intervention and prevention program, a cognitive-behavioral approach that tries to address the root causes of violent and controlling behavior.
He also is required to complete a parenting program, though he is currently prohibited from having any contact with his daughter, and to donate $870 to the San Antonio Food Bank in lieu of community service.
Uhr is also responsible for $1,975 in court fees and fines.
During the sentencing, Boyd issued an “affirmative finding of family violence,” a legal decree that prohibits Uhr — who owns multiple weapons and was formerly a licensed gun dealer, according to court records — from owning or possessing firearms.
Uhr is seeking reinstatement
to his job with the Fire Department, likely with full back pay and benefits. In his appeal filed March 25, after he was convicted, Uhr denied assaulting his daughter and ex-girlfriend. Even if the allegations were true, Uhr wrote, they would not merit firing.
In fiscal 2018, Uhr made $95,276 in gross earnings, in addition to medical, pension and other employee benefits, according to city records.
The attorneys who separately represent Uhr in his criminal case and his reinstatement appeal declined to comment, citing pending legal matters.
Daughter injured
According to police records, Uhr and his then-girlfriend, Amanda Hamel, were driving to Uhr’s home in unincorporated Bexar County on June 2, 2018, when they got in an argument.
As the argument escalated, Hamel later told police, she feared that Uhr might push her out of the vehicle. She jumped in the back seat, where their 18month-old daughter was seated.
When they arrived home, Hamel grabbed the child and exited the vehicle. She also tried to grab her cellphone and purse before realizing that Uhr had locked the car door, prohibiting her from getting her belongings.
At that point, the records state, Uhr grabbed their daughter from Hamel’s arms, initiating a short struggle. He walked into the garage and tried to close the garage door as he repeatedly pushed Hamel away.
“I grabbed his shirt to pull him outside with me,” Hamel later told a forensic nurse. “At that point, he somehow swung her around and her head smacked the garage . ... He didn’t do it on purpose, but he was trying to push me, and her head smacked the garage.”
The pair continued to argue. Uhr pushed Hamel again, the records state.
Finally, Hamel ran to the road, where she flagged down a driver. She begged the person to call 911 before returning home to retrieve their daughter.
She later told detectives that she feared for the child’s safety. Uhr had repeatedly threatened to “end it all” if she called police.
When she returned home, Uhr handed over their daughter and left. Later that evening, officers found Uhr and arrested him on a charge of injury to a child, a felony, and assault bodily injurymarried, a misdemeanor.
At San Antonio Children’s Hospital, Hamel’s daughter was treated for a small laceration above her left eye, in addition to a bruise to her forehead.
This wasn’t the first time Uhr had threatened Hamel, the woman told the nurse.
A year earlier, Hamel said, Uhr had confronted Hamel during an argument and lifted his fist, indicating he was going to punch her. She stepped back and pointed to the door. Hamel said Uhr smacked her arm out of the way.
Hamel wondered whether her boyfriend’s behavior could be linked to the loss of a friend, the records state. In 2016, she told the nurse, his close friend committed suicide after killing his wife.
“Barry hasn’t been the same, he hasn’t been right since,” Hamel said. “He’s an angry person. When I had (our daughter), we all thought he would fall in love, but the first picture I have of them together, his eyes look cold.”
Violence persists
For six months, Uhr continued to work as a paramedic and fire engineer at the Fire Department while awaiting trial. On Dec. 2, 2018, sheriff’s deputies were called to his home again.
According to court records, Uhr and a different woman, his girlfriend of four months, were arguing after she discovered text messages he sent to another woman.
Uhr’s girlfriend threatened to leave. As she gathered her belongings, Uhr grabbed her by the neck with both hands and slammed her against the door.
“He started choking me,” the woman wrote in an affidavit. “I hit him once with my right hand in an attempt to get him off of me. He then punched me on my forehead with his left fist closed. I fell backwards on my left shoulder.”
As the woman stood up, she pulled her phone from her pocket and tried to call 911. Uhr grabbed the phone and hurled it
from the second floor to the first.
“I was crying at this point,” the woman wrote. “I ran outside, jumped over the fence, and ran to his neighbor’s house.”
Once police arrived, Uhr had already left. He was arrested a few days later.
At the hospital, the woman had X-rays taken, and for over a week, she had a black eye, she later told prosecutors.
She also told prosecutors that she feared for her life and applied for a protective order, a civil order that prohibits an alleged abuser from contacting a petitioner. A judge later approved her application.
“He has made threats about wanting harm done to (his exgirlfriend) because he knows that if he gets convicted of anything, he’ll lose his job,” the woman wrote in an affidavit.
“About two months ago, he told me that he wished he knew someone in California, where she is, because he would have her killed. Then he wouldn’t have to worry about the charges against him.”
‘A gentle giant’
In letters to Judge Boyd after Uhr’s conviction, friends portrayed him as a thoughtful and kindhearted public servant — “a gentle giant” who risked his life many times during his 17 years with the Fire Department.
They also said he was a doting caretaker for his twin brother who had AIDS and chronically ill mother, both of whom died in recent years.
Wilson County Attorney Tom Caldwell, a former Fire Department captain, urged Boyd to
place Uhr on probation. At the time, Uhr faced up to 10 years in prison.
Caldwell, who was elected in Wilson County in 2016, has a controversial history as a public servant. In April 2015, he was fired from the Fire Department after he was accused of fraudulently obtaining insurance benefits, though he was never criminally charged and he later won an appeal to get his job back.
He has also faced scrutiny for his decision as a county attorney to hire a former San Antonio police officer accused of altering evidence and lying about it. The San Antonio Police Department filed criminal charges against the officer, but those were dropped after the man agreed to surrender his peace officer license.
Caldwell is also representing Uhr in his appeal to get his job back.
“I implore you to consider sentencing Barry Uhr to probation,” Caldwell wrote on official Wilson County letterhead. “He has value to our society yet, and you will not be disappointed with his attempt to redeem himself.”
San Antonio Fire Capt. Wesley Jendrusch, another former colleague, also wrote a letter on Uhr’s behalf.
“I firmly believe that Barry is a good man,” Jendrusch wrote, noting that he was not speaking for the Fire Department.
“Over the past year, I have witnessed Barry suffer from the embarrassment, shame, guilt, uncertainty about his future and ridicule over this unfortunate situation.”