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Cop Watch: Drunk Cops Cause Crashes – Get Busted in Fort Worth, Zip in SA

Of course, law enforcement is a stressful job.  We’re grateful to those who protect and serve and we can all understand how nerve-racking it can be to be a cop in Texas these days.  No one’s gonna deny a cop the right to a brew or two after a long day’s patrol.  On the other hand….

There are two newstories JUST THIS WEEK about drunk cops in car crashes, one out of Fort Worth and one from San Antonio. 

In Fort Worth, a woman was killed shortly after 2 o’clock in the morning when she pulled in front of an oncoming patrol car on a street with a designated 35 mph speed limit.  Guess this poor woman didn’t think that some intoxicated police officer would be hauling down the road at twice the legal speed limit…. The victim of the crash, Sonia Baker, was only 27 years old.  The cop, Jesus Cisneros, was ten years older and had a blood alcohol count of 0.17% — over TWICE the legal limit of 0.08%.  Wow.

This week in San Antonio, at 8:45 pm in the evening, a pickup truck careened across highway US 90 West, narrowly missing 4 cars of oncoming eastbound traffic, and slammed into the Blue Ribbon Housing-Fleetwood manufactured home fenced sales lot.   Driven by Sargeant Tom Alonzo of the San Antonio Police Department, there were no human injuries in this accident other than the ones that the driver himself sustained.  Riding in the truck’s cab with Sgt. Alonzo was his pal Joe Gonzalez. 

And while the eyewitness — Jason Costo of Blue Ribbon — reports that both were acting drunk (unsteady on their feet, reeking of alcohol), no charges have been pressed so far against Sgt. Alonzo for driving drunk.  Interestingly, Alonzo had a friend pick him up from the scene before any law enforcement could get there.  (Costo called the cops.)

Homicide detective Jose Trevino of the Bexar County Sheriff’s Department has told the media that their offices will not charge Alonzo because no one was hurt and the truck’s passenger — pal Joe — says that the driver wasn’t doing anything wrong, and they’re assuming it could be a mechanical malfunction that caused the pickup to veer over the highway ….

And here’s where things veer off. 

In Fort Worth, officer Cisneros not only quit his job, he has been charged with intoxication manslaughter with bond set at $25,000 (he’s free on bond right now). 

In San Antonio, nothing’s happened to officer Alonzo.  Smart enough to leave the scene before the cops could get there (isn’t there something wrong with that?), and lucky enough that those 4 cars got out of his way as he crossed over their eastbound lanes on US90West, Alonzo’s BAC wasn’t tested and isn’t known. Bexar County Sheriffs aren’t doing any investigation.  The San Antonio Police Department is reporting that they are double-checking things out, tho.  Well, hooray for that, right? 

Oh, and by the way, Alonzo is the second officer within the past 30 days — out of the same unit in the department, the SAPD’s Tactical Response Unit — to face allegations of driving drunk and crashing.  Fellow SAPD Officer Winder Morales was charged with DUI right before Thanksgiving after crashing a car, yes, on that same highway: U.S. 90 West.

Be careful out there.


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