DOJ Attorneys Announce Texas Civil Rights Conviction

In a Press Release at http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/January/10-crt-032.html , U. S. Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys announced on January 13, 2010 that a former Texas Department of Public Safety trooper was convicted by a federal court jury in Corpus Christi, Texas for violating federal law by willfully stealing money from motorists that he had stopped on the highway while working as a trooper.  According to the DOJ Press Release, the former trooper was prosecuted for stopping motorists who appeared to be of Hispanic descent and stealing their money, usually in amounts of several hundred dollars.  As further stated in the Press Release, civilian complaints triggered an undercover operation by the Texas Department of Public Safety, in conjunction with the Texas Rangers, to investigate the trooper.  In the investigation, an undercover officer posed as a civilian of Hispanic descent with limited English language ability.  He was issued several pre-recorded $100 bills.  Upon being stopped by the trooper, the undercover officer was asked for money in his possession which he then took behind the passenger side door of his patrol vehicle.  After the former trooper returned bills to the officer, the officer realized that some of the money was missing, so Texas Rangers and Department of Public Safety officers confronted the trooper and, upon inspection of the partol vehicle, found two of the pre-recorded $100 bills secreted in the passenger side door pocket next to the area where he had gone to count the money, according to the DOJ.

A DOJ attorney quoted in the Press Release stated that “[t]he defendant abused the power granted to him as a law enforcement officer to prey upon unsuspecting motorists for personal gain.”  The defendant faces a maximum sentence of up to four years in prison, restitution and a $400,000.00 fine.  Sentencing has been set for April 20, 2010.