Visitor from Austin to Houston Receives Rough Welcome from Houston Police Officer

Harold McMillan Roughed-Up By Houston Police Officer

Houston, Texas

Harold McMillan made his way from Austin to Houston, following the death of his brother. A week later, McMillan, went to pick-up his brother’s personal items from a hospital. McMillan, the founder of the Austin nonprofit DiverseArts Culture Works, says he visited Memorial Hermann's Texas Medical Center location to retrieve the brother’s wallet.

McMillan says he had cleared the visit with someone at the hospital's guest services department, who indicated that he could pick-up the wallet at a security checkpoint near the emergency room, and that they'd have all the necessary paperwork. Sounds pretty simple, right?

As it turns out, according to McMillan, things didn’t go as smoothly as he had been led to believe they would. Frustrated with a security guard’s inability to find any information on his brother or the wallet, McMillan asked to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor confirmed the existence of the wallet, but said they were not authorized to hand it over to McMillan. So, McMillan asked to speak to someone higher on the command chain. Apparently, the security supervisor didn’t appreciate this.

"At that point, he started chastising me about my bad attitude," McMillan told The Houston Press.

The two men continued to argue, before more security officers and a Houston police Officer appeared from behind a checkpoint door. The Houston police officer said to McMillan, “We need to talk to you back here.”

McMillan, not knowing the reputation of the Houston Police Department, made the mistake of questioning the officer. Those of you aware of HPD’s reputation can probably guess what comes next.

"The next thing I know, he's got his arms...through my arms and my back...and I'm up off the ground," McMillan says. The cop, per McMillan, walked him through the door, admonishing him not to "resist," and then, "the next thing I know, he slammed me to the floor, face first."

McMillan says that, while he was asking the officer if he was under arrest, and what the charge might be, the supervisor told him that this probably wouldn't have happened if McMillan didn't have a bad attitude. He also suggested that it may have turned out totally different, McMillan says, if McMillan had been wearing a suit, or at least a shirt and tie, instead of his cargo shorts and flip-flops.

McMillan was escorted to jail and charged with "interference with public duties," a misdemeanor. Specifically, the charging document reads that McMillan interfered with the officer's duty by "refusing to follow verbal commands, pulling his hands away, and refusing to put his hands behind his back."

An HPD spokesman told The Houston Press that, according to the arrest report, McMillan used "abusive language" toward both the hospital employee and the officer. "We are aware of the incident," Victor Senties says. He added that McMillan has not filed a complaint with the Internal Affairs Division, and that complaint forms are available on the Department's website, or can be made in person or through advocacy groups such as LULAC and NAACP.

Many would probably remind Harold that it could have been worse...

Montgomery County Deputies Use Guns and Badges Against Repo Man Who Repossessed Another Cop’s Truck

Montgomery County, Texas

A Montgomery County sheriff's detective is accused of using his badge and gun to force a repo man to give him his wife’s truck back.

Brenton Huff told KPRC-TV, “I’m trying to make an honest living. I shouldn’t have to worry about being shot, especially by police.”

Huff was hired to repossess a 2007 Chevrolet Silverado from Tammy Berkley, the wife of a deputy. The lender told him she was four months behind on her payments. Huff got right on it and spotted the truck in Conroe on March 15. He followed it, ironically, to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department Auto Theft Task Force office. When the driver went in, Huff’s duty began.

"I just backed up to it, hooked up and pulled it down the street,” Huff explained.

The wrecker driver says he pulled into a parking lot at the jail to call the sheriff’s office and report the repossession, a routine procedure. Seconds after he drove away, Huff said three cars pulled up alongside him, boxing in his wrecker. The cars were unmarked, the men in civilian clothes, but Huff says they all had guns pointing right at him.

“I really thought I was gonna get shot right then,” Huff told KPRC. “I had my hands up here on the window so they could see them. The officer was yelling at me. He said, ‘That’s my wife’s truck.’”

The woman’s husband is Keith Winford, a Montgomery County Sheriff’s detective. Winford was accompanied by three to four other deputies.

“He just grabbed me out, slammed me up against the truck right here,” said Huff.

Huff was placed in handcuffs by the officers and Winford drove his tow truck back to the sheriff’s office. After holding him for about 15 minutes, he demanded the repo man release his wife’s truck.

“Once I unhooked it, he told me ‘Get out of here.’ And then he told me if he catches me in his driveway, he’s gonna shoot me,” Huff recounted.

Montgomery County first Assistant District Attorney Phil Grant told KPRC Local 2 the Texas Rangers are investigating the incident.

Grant said law enforcement officers do not have any special privileges when it comes to getting their vehicles repossessed.

“Law enforcement officers have to follow the same rules everybody else does,” he said.

The lieutenant at the county’s Auto Theft Task Force told KPRC his detectives didn’t make a report on the incident. The lieutenant only reported it to the sheriff after Local 2 called him on March 23rd, eight days after the incident.

A week after the interview, Winford and the other deputies are claiming that Huff put an illegal tracking device on the truck. Huff denies that allegation. The detectives say they gave it back to Huff, so they have no proof of the tracking device. Evidence will be presented to a grand jury later this month.

Watch KPRC Video Here

Update: Harris County Deputy Christopher Kerr Indicted In Two Cases of Sexual Assault

Deputy told one victim to "adjust his erect penis."

Houston, Texas

We recently featured a story on Harris County Deputy Constable Christopher Kerr, involving allegations of sexual abuse. There are new developments in the case of the former deputy accused of inappropriately touching women. A grand jury has indicted that ex-deputy constable on a second charge of inappropriate sexual activity with a person in custody.

There are now two victims with similar stories. One of those victims is speaking out.

The two cases against 32-year-old Christopher Kerr happened a month apart last summer. The women in each case allege that while Kerr had them in custody, he touched them inappropriately and against their will.

One of those women is also suing Kerr, his former boss and Harris County in federal court, claiming her civil rights were violated.

Monica Marquez is one of many who are calling Kerr a predator.

"He preyed on me," she said. "I don't know what else to call him besides that. I could probably think of something nicer but it wouldn't be true."

In the incident involving Marquez, court documents report Christopher Kerr stopped he on the Sam Houston Tollway last August. That’s when, according to Marquez, Deputy Kerr handcuffed her and proceeded to grope and fondle her and that Deputy Kerr then placed his hands under her skirt and fondled her.

Marquez says she is not surprised to learn that this week Kerr was indicted in her case and for an similar incident alleged to have happened a month before hers.

"I was also not shocked at all because I was pretty sure he'd done it before," Marquez said. "Because the way that he did it, it was like it was something that he did on a regular basis."

Marquez’s attorney David Bryant said "We should be able to know that the police officers that are out there for our protection are truly going to be out there for our protection."

Marquez is suing because she says Kerr was allowed to resign instead of being fired, which would have allowed him to seek law enforcement employment elsewhere.

The department says he did resign, but only after he was fired.

Kerr faces up to two years in prison for each case.

Off Duty Houston Cop Could Probably Use 'People Skills' Class

Houston, Texas

A new video has gone viral, involving two guys videotaping at a Houston-area Walmart, and their subsequent confrontation with security. What is interesting about the video, is the security guard and his uniform.

The uniform appears to indicate the security guard is a deputy constable moonlighting as a security guard. The incident happened at a Walmart on the southwest side of Houston.

The information accompanying the video says "the men where later hand-cuffed to be arrested but released after another cop came to their rescue."

Mustang Ridge Cop Jacob Cuevas Busted for DWI In His Patrol Car

Police Officer Jacob Cuevas Caught Driving Drunk

Mustang Ridge, Texas

I had never heard of Mustang Ridge until today. It’s a small community outside of Austin. And it is also the home of police officer Jacob Cuevas, who was arrested for Driving While Intoxicated in his marked patrol car.

Around 1:15 Wednesday afternoon, Officer Jacob Cuevas was spotted by a passerby in Guadalupe County, a little more than 40 miles from Mustang Ridge, slumped over the steering wheel of his patrol car.

Cuevas was off-duty and in plain clothes, and it isn’t known why he was in his police unit.

Guadalupe County Sheriff Deputies found Cuevas driving on FM 621.

When he was pulled over, deputies said they could smell alcohol on Cuevas and they also said that he appeared intoxicated. He allegedly didn't do so well with field sobriety tests either.

Cuevas was arrested and charged with DWI. He was taken to the Guadalupe County Jail in Seguin.

Cuevas posted a $10,000 bond and was on administrative leave, pending the outcome of his case.

Austin Police Officer Elias Osegueda Arrested for Family Violence

Austin Police Officer Elias Osegueda

Hays County, Texas

Have you ever noticed how alleged wife beaters are often arrested without a shirt? Anyway, a City of Austin police officer found himself on the other side of the bars, after being arrested in Hays County for assault in connection to a family violence incident. 30-year-old officer Elias Osegueda was arrested around 9:20 p.m. Saturday at his family's home on Sloan Road, near Shadow Creek Boulevard in Buda.

Osegueda allegedly shoved his 33-year-old wife, and then he prevented her from using a phone to call for help, according to investigators. She eventually called 911.

A spokesperson for the sheriff's office says he was booked into the Hays County jail on two charges: assault bodily injury and family violence and interference with an emergency call -- both Class A Misdemeanors.

Osegueda went before a magistrate Sunday morning. His bond was set at $2,000. He's been released from custody.

Is Former Harris County Deputy Constable Christopher Kerr A Sexual Predator?

Houston, Texas

There are new developments in the case of a deputy constable, Christopher Kerr, accused of inappropriately touching a woman during an arrest.

The victim has filed a lawsuit against Harris County and the Deputy’s former boss, and she wants $150,000 for deprivation of civil rights, physical injury and mental anguish. The deputy’s former boss is Harris County Precinct 3 Constable Ken Jones.

Christopher Kerr is accused of pulling over a female driver on the Sam Houston Tollway near John Ralston Road last year for not having an EZ tag. And while detaining her in his squad car, the woman says Deputy Kerr handcuffed her and then proceeded to grope and fondle her.

She says Kerr then placed his hands under her skirt and fondled her.

"Deputy Kerr then told Plaintiff that his penis was erect and that she needed to 'adjust it' or she would go to jail," the suit says.

The traffic stop, her lawsuit alleges, lasted about 30 minutes. But there is not any video record of it, because video of the incident was erased from the camera in Kerr's patrol car.

The constable says the video was not erased, rather they found that Kerr turned off the recording equipment and was fired because of it during their investigation of him.

And this was not the first time Kerr had been fired from Precinct 3. A year before the alleged groping, the constable let him go for violating policy during off-duty work by spending time at home instead of on the job.

Months later, the constable says he gave Kerr a second chance.

The lawyer for the woman says, "The truth is, when Constable Ken Jones rehired Officer Kerr, he put a sexual predator back out on the street in a constable's uniform."

There is a criminal case pending against Kerr. The Harris County District Attorney's Office says it remains under investigation and will be resolved by the end of grand jury testimony, which is next Thursday.