Arbitrator Reinstates Austin Cop Involved In Fatal Shooting Scandal Even After His Firing After Drunk Driving Arrest

Austin, Texas

"Arbitrator rules that officer's punishment for DWI was 'inconsistent' with that given to other officers."

The decision by Louise Wolitz of Austin, which city officials received Thursday, clears Quintana to immediately return to the force.

Quintana fatally shot Nathaniel Sanders II in an apartment complex parking lot in May 2009, and the subsequent investigation — Quintana was suspended for not turning on his patrol car camera — outraged some critics of the department who wanted harsher punishment.

It also led to ongoing scrutiny of Quintana, whose DWI arrest came about eight months after the shooting.

Wolitz ordered that Quintana receive a 15-day suspension for the drunken driving charge — his time off the force will count toward that — and receive back pay for the additional days he was unemployed.

In January, Williamson County authorities charged Quintana with drunken driving — the morning after he was questioned for several hours in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by Sanders' family.


Police have said that Quintana drove drunk, despite offers to stay at the home of a friend. They said blood tests showed that he had a 0.19 blood alcohol level at the time of his arrest, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08.

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Houston Police Officer Charged With Theft And Relieved Of Duty

Houston, Texas

Darrin D. Thomas, 42, was charged with theft by a public servant. According to court documents, Thomas stole cash in excess of $500 during course of his duties as an HPD officer.

HPD said the arrest was a result of a proactive Internal Affairs investigation. The department relieved Thomas of duty.

He is out on $2,000 bond.

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Dallas Police Officer Accused of Choking 14-Year-Old

Dallas, Texas

Another Dallas police officer is under criminal investigation. The officer is accused of choking a 14-year-old boy until the teen nearly passed out.

This is the third investigation in recent weeks involving an officer from the southeast patrol division.

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Coppell Texas Confirms Deputy Police Chief Placed On Leave, But Denies It’s Related To Reports Of Missing Drug Money

Coppell, Texas

A Coppell city spokesman denied this afternoon an earlier report that a police chief was put on administrative leave because money went missing from the department.

KTVT televison reported last night that a lockbox with at least $1,500 - used by officers during undercover drug operations - went missing recently at the city's police headquarters. The station also said Deputy Chief Steve Thomas was "placed on administrative leave and escorted out of the building."

Dallas News Source

Quote Of The Day From One Of Our Favorite Sites

Cops are very nearly worshipped in our society. On endless TV shows, in movies, police procedural novels, in the newspapers and on the nightly news, police are usually presented as virtue personified -- as if it's heroic to button up a blue shirt and pin on a badge.


It's not.


What some cops do while wearing the uniform makes them heroes ... and what other cops do, on-duty and off, reveals them as thugs.


So if you're looking for more news of police heroism, you've come to the wrong place. If you want to be told again that the policeman is your friend, that cops are the good guys and robbers are the bad guys, you'll find such reassurance on every newscast around the clock, and on every cop show from Dragnet to CSI: Miami.


This page is for readers brave enough to face facts:


All cops are not heroes and that's a fact, but because of the myth that "all cops are heroes," there's minimal call for disciplining bad cops, and maximal call for "forgiving," and "understanding" the tough work of being a cop. And that's despicable, and terrifying.


Police work is tough, of course. It's among the most difficult jobs in the world, work that deserves our respect. And turning a blind eye toward police misconduct -- allowing crooked, corrupt, outright criminal cops to have long careers in law enforcement -- only makes it more difficult and dangerous for the good cops.


Letting cops get away with crime, or "punishing" police misconduct with long, leisurely paid suspensions, or probation, or sweet deals that allow a policeman's own police record to be expunged, or any of the other special treatments cops typically receive when they're accused of wrongdoing, is assinine and counterproductive.


We'd like to see good cops get a raise, and bad cops held accountable for their crimes. Any other policy is an invitation to savages and brutes -- to button up a blue shirt, pin on a badge, and break the law with impunity.


--Helen & Harry Highwater, Unknown News

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Texas DPS Trooper Charged With Indecency With A Minor

Brownesville, Texas

The Cameron County Sheriff’s Department arrested a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper accused of having sexual relations with an underage relative.

Adan Rostro, 32, was arrested Friday evening at his San Benito residence on a warrant charging him with two counts of indecency with a minor, said Sheriff Omar Lucio. The location of Rostro’s arrest couldn’t be released because the home addresses of peace officers are not public record.

The victim is a female in her early teens, Lucio said. The relationship between the two was not released because it could identify the victim, the sheriff said.

Source

Texas DPS Trooper Guilty of Illegally Selling Drivers Licenses To Unqualified Applicants

Houston, Texas

A Texas Department of Public Safety trooper from Houston pleaded guilty today to selling driver's licenses to unqualified applicants, federal officials said.

Trooper Mark DeArza, 39, is the second DPS employee to plead guilty in a case that involved the operator of a gas station on Almeda-Genoa who acted as a middle man to sell the licenses, officials said.

DPS clerk Lidia Gutierrez, 37, of Galena Park pleaded guilty on Sept. 30.

Both face up to 15 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. Both are out on bond awaiting sentencing.

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