Seguin Police Chief Kevin Kelso, according to media reports, first became aware of some bad stuff going on within his department when he got word that the Texas Rangers were investigating one of his officers — so Kelso put this officer on paid leave.

Sometime after that, a second set of facts revealed themselves about another Seguin police officer, and a second investigation into these allegations is also being undertaken. Kelso is threatening this second cop with termination.

The media coverage hasn’t given great detail about what’s going on over in Seguin, but through the Texas Public Information Act, the Seguin Gazette-Enterprise has reported about three letters that have been released to them.

First Seguin Police Officer – Allegations of Some Type of “Criminal Complaint”

The first two letters, from Chief Kelso to the first officer, reference allegations of a “criminal complaint,” and the placing of the first officer on paid leave. The second letter to this same officer forbids him from entering the Police Department “for any reason at any hour,” and gives Kelso’s request that the officer stay in his home and available to investigators during normal business hours.

Second Seguin Police Officer – Allegations of “Improper Relationship with a Minor Child”

The third letter was written by Seguin Chief Kelso to the second, unidentified officer just last Friday. This letter gives more details into what the allegations are against this Seguin cop, and the letter itself is quoted in the Seguin Gazette Enterprise and reprinted here:

“I am considering termination of your employment for conduct unbecoming an officer of the Seguin Police Department…. Specifically, it is alleged by two local educators that you have engaged in an improper relationship with a minor child and that you are responsible for inappropriate communications (text messages) with that child.”

Interestingly, the San Antonio Express News is reporting these two police officers as being one currently on the force, and one who has “recently left the force.”

Sources:

Seguin Gazette-Enterprise
http://www.seguingazette.com/story.lasso?ewcd=22b2e3dd51dd606f

San Antonio Express News
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/Texas_Rangers_probe_sex_allegations_against_Seguin_officers.html

Reymundo “Rey” Guerra was Sheriff of Starr County, Texas, for several years — in fact, he was running for re-election last year when the FBI arrested him on drug trafficking charges. That made it hard for the citizens of Starr County since Rey Guerra was the only name on the ballot. They re-elected Guerra despite his troubles.

Guerra Was Re-elected and Had to Resign His Post – Twice

As a condition of his bond, Rey Guerra resigned his post before the election. Then, the voters elected him back as Sheriff, and he had to resign the post a second time. Yeah, this game of musical chairs really happened.

Sheriff Guerra wasn’t busted all by himself — he was first arrested as part of a big nationwide bust of Gulf Cartel members by the feds back last Fall. In fact, the feds describe him as a “minor participant” in the Cartel’s operations.

What Did Starr County Sheriff Rey Guerra Do That Was So Wrong?

Seems there was a human smuggling group in the Starr County area led by a man who used to be a cop in Mexico, name of Jose Carlos Hinojosa. Guerra and Hinojosa met when they were both in law enforcement.

However, like many stories out of Mexico these days, Hinojosa traded his job with Mexican law authorities for employment with a national drug organization: this one, the infamous Zetas. The Zetas are a feared paramilitary group with close affiilations with the Gulf Cartel. (Hinojosa’s already pled guilty to drug trafficking and money laundering conspiracy.)

Hinojosa would help Guerra get suspects back from Mexico who had escaped across the border, and in exchange, Guerra would give Hinojosa the names and contact information of informants targeted for raids in Starr County. Guerra didn’t do this thinking that Hinojosa was still a cop — Guerra did this knowing that Hinojosa was now a member of the Zetas, and had apparently known this as far back as January 2007.

Oh, and Guerra also got paid $2,000 – $3,000 for each scoop on informants he provided.

Now, he’s pled guilty to one federal count of drug smuggling conspiracy, just one week before his trial.

As part of his plea deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Sheriff Rey Guerra has admitted to using his elected office as Sheriff of Starr County, Texas, to help drug dealers (read that the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas) as they trafficked in narcotics in Starr County and Miguel Alemán, Tamps, Mexico.

Right now, ex-Sheriff Guerra faces spending the rest of his life in prison. The federal sentencing hearing is set for July.

And, if you’re thinking that putting a former Sheriff into a federal prison for the rest of his life is akin to a death sentence of sorts, you might well be right.

Sources:

The Monitor
http://www.themonitor.com/articles/sheriff-26040-guilty-starr.html

The Brownsville Herald
http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/sheriff-97563-guilty-starr.html

The Associated Press
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j-jrJN7CWIGaTnumy_YsWHTHoprAD97TKOV82

First, here are the names:

Lawrence Coddington
Jerry Dodd
David Durica
David Nevitt
Frank Poblenz
Randy Sundquist.

These six men led relatively quiet lives, until now. They were cops. They led cop lives, wore the uniform, drove the car, raised the families.

They got the respect that police get these days — kids waving at them from the street, grandmas smiling at them in the mall. These days, it’s not like the Sixties. These days, we are a society that takes pride in our men in blue. Maybe 9/11 had something to do with that, I dunno.

Now, they’ve lost all that. And the Dallas Police Department has one more smear on its reputation. A reputation that is still tarnished with the 2001 Fake Drug Scandal (remember that? Over 80 cases were dismissed after WFAA-TV exposed a pattern of cops busting folk, including lots of Mexican immigrants, for what turned out NOT to be illegal substances at all. Fake Drugs.)

And, maybe we’ve all lost something here. Wait, there’s no “maybe” with that one.

What happened?

These six veteran cops (the youngest is 41, the oldest is 57) are accused of putting a man in jail on false charges, where he sat — an innocent man — for 10 months. Almost a year.

Because, according to the feds, the cops LIED. THEY LIED. And there’s video to prove it.

Federal prosecutors have filed a federal lawsuit charging civil rights violations here, and who knows if there’s gonna be criminal charges, too. They think they have a strong case — which was helped by the innocent guy’s criminal defense attorney who was savvy enough to fully investigate the situation. He found a video that is clean and clear and directly contradicts what the cops said.

Sure, there’s a guy carrying a black bag with guns and drugs. It’s just NOT this guy. Not even close.

Why Do This Stupid Thing?

The Feds, and the innocent guy’s attorney, are blatant in their allegations that Officer Nevitt lied when he said this guy had drugs and guns with him when the guy was arrested outside of a North Dallas hotel.

These six cops all went over to the Windham Hotel to bust this guy for violating his parole. Don’t know why this took 6 cops.

Nevitt, apparently, is the cop that pointed the finger. Repeatedly and adamently. The others backed him up.

Dodd wrote the police report. He wrote that Nevitt saw the guy leave the hotel with this Evil Bag, which the guy dropped after he spotted the cops coming for him. The report fails to mention the hotel video.

Now, we’ve got an innocent man who lost almost a year of his life. And, we’ve got another situation where those boxes full of prosecution cases marked “closed” are going to have to be pulled out and investigated, because who knows how many other times this may have happened.

And, finally, we’ve got that guy that got away — the real guy on the video, who really dropped the Evil Black Bag — smiling just a little as he reads the morning paper.

Source:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/
yahoolatestnews/stories/021709dnmetdpd.4035ff0.html

Wikipedia – Dallas Police Department
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Police_Department

You just can’t trust anyone these days.

A week ago Friday, before the bust, Standric Choice was a Dallas County Sheriff’s Deputy with 8 years seniority and a previous record of working for the county as a jail guard. He drove a Sheriff’s Department squad car, wore the uniform, and patroled South Dallas.

After the bust, on that same Friday afternoon, Choice became an inmate of the feds, wearing overalls and fabric shoes, with the prosecutors arguing he needs to stay behind bars until trial time because he’s a high flight risk.

Deputy Standric Choice is facing a possible sentence of 80 years behind bars and a $250,000 fine.

What happened?

Well, the feds are at it again — just like down in Cameron County (see the earlier post on that one) — the federal government is busy investigating corruption in Texas policing agencies, and they’re getting results.

Choice’s undoing began on a Wednesday when an informant ratted to the FBI that there was a Dallas County Sheriff’s deputy who would be “trading licks” that Friday.

Trading licks? That’s the lingo for a con game where the deputy was going to help steal cocaine from a drug dealer. Yep, sort of a twisted Robin Hood game plan.

The FBI Cons the Con

The feds instructed the informant to go ahead and set things up with Deputy Choice and Charlie Hill (rumored to be Choice’s brother-in-law). The rat allegedly told Hill that he was going to buy 4 kilograms of cocaine from the drug dealer on Friday afternoon, at the TA Truck Stop on IH 20 and Bonnie View Lane here in Dallas.

(Guess what? The “dealer” in this sting operation was really going to be a federal agent. Yes, just like on TV.)

Hill would watch the rat and the “dealer” meet at the truck stop, and Hill would call up Deputy Choice. Choice would barrel into the truck stop in his squad car, search the “dealer’s” car and “confiscate” the coke. He’d also let the “dealer” go (not sure how this would be explained away) and then Deputy Choice, Hill, and the rat would divy up the prize.

The Feds Let the Game Play Out

That Friday, the FBI let the game play out. According to the filed affidavit, the rat and the brother-in-law did their dance at the truck stop, and Deputy Choice successfully drove away with the cocaine stashed in the trunk of his squad car: the feds busted Choice as soon as he drove into the parking lot of the Sheriff’s Department.

What’s the Sheriff’s Department Saying?

Well, it’s no surprise that the Dallas County Sheriff is labelling Deputy Choice as a lone wolf. According to the Dallas Morning News, Lupe Valdez has said: “It is extremely unfortunate that one person chose to ruin his career by making bad choices …. The acts of one do not reflect the acts of many.”

Yeah, you’d think someone with the last name of CHOICE would know better.

Sources:

Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/011309dnmetchoice.d2ad5.html

Dallas Criminal Lawyer Blog
http://dallaslawyer.blogspot.com/2009/01/jail-watch-drop-in-bucket-as-cameron.html