'Ain't nobody got time for this': 911 operator hung up on thousands, gets probation
She hung up on a security guard who called to report reckless driving, dismissing him with, "Ain't nobody got time for this. For real."
Often her hang-ups only resulted in slight delays in service, like when she hung up on Buster Pendley, who called for help for his wife, who had collapsed. A second 911 operator sent help, and his wife survived the blood clot that had moved to her legs.
But sometimes people's lives were on the line. Like when Hua Li's 911 call was disconnected before he even got through explaining that the Race Trac gas station was being held up and one of the clerks had been shot. Again, a second 911 operator took Li's next call and sent an ambulance, but by the time it arrived, the clerk was dead.
Crenshanda Williams, 44, admitted to it all, according to KPRC. Thousands of hang-ups on callers in some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives or the lives of others around them, during her time fielding 911 calls at the Houston Emergency Center.
Now, according to the Houston Chronicle, she'll serve 10 days in jail after being found guilty of interference with emergency telephone calls. The bulk of the sentence handed down from a Houston jury, though, is an 18-month probation term.
Her three-day trial ended Wednesday before she was convicted and sentenced for the misdemeanor offense.
Williams spent a year and a half taking 911 calls at the Houston Emergency Center, from March 2015, until she was caught in August 2016 and fired by the city.
"The citizens of Harris County rely on 911 operators to dispatch help in their time of need," Assistant District Attorney Lauren Reeder told KTRK. "When a public servant betrays the community's trust and breaks the law, we have a responsibility to hold them criminally accountable."
Williams got caught after routine monthly call audits showed an "abnormally large number of short calls," identified as calls lasting 20 seconds or shorter, according to KPRC. A news release from Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg's office said that those audits also showed Houston Emergency Center management that Williams was the one ending the call "thousands" of times.
This story was originally published April 19, 2018 at 6:41 AM with the headline "'Ain't nobody got time for this': 911 operator hung up on thousands, gets probation."