Letter To A Candidate: Questions For The Sake Of Transparency

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• I am such a fan of the amazing Peace Force that is our SMPD and HCSheriff's Department. To a man, officers are carefully chosen, well-trained, and have great integrity. Are there bad apples? Sure, in every field of any industry. Can policies be improved, and training be enhanced? Of course, and the actual officers need to be involved in it, unlike recent developments here in San Marcos. Are these departments "systemically racist?" BALONEY! (bologna? haha) That said, I am incredulous. Sheila, did you just tell us that Alex Villalobos is running for sheriff after only being a deputy for 6 1/2 months? That is nuts!

  • With all due respect, Ms. Dillon, you are mistaken in stating the police department has been unrepresented in recent reform efforts. For the San Marcos ordinance on Cite & Release, which has now been pursued by Houston, Laredo and soon San Antonio it seems, our Public Safety Director Chase Stapp and Interim Chief Bob Klett were a critical part of the process, as part of the City's criminal justice committee which spent nearly a year revising a draft prepared by Mango Amigo. The activists were actually excluded from the committee, and were not allowed to speak in meetings, nor vote on the policy they initially suggested. On the contrary, numerous representatives of SMPD leadership (Stapp, Klett, Asst Chief WInkenwerder) were bonafide committee members who could vote in meetings and shape the proposed policy over the course of 2019 and early 2020. Seems to me we should be proud of this policy, which creates cost savings while increasing greater liberty for county residents. And now other major cities across Texas are following San Marcos's lead, which I feel good about.

    • Mr. Adams,

      You say you're "proud" of this Ordinance. However, to be so, you've got to remain ignorant of law.

      As a matter of unarguable fact, the powers that your cite-and-release Ordinance gives to police officers, are the same powers which the law says are exclusively held and exercised by the judiciary. Specifically, a police officer following the arrest of a person, as a matter of law, does not hold authority for reviewing the past history of the accused, nor for deciding upon what conditions, if any, the person may be released. Those powers are exclusively held by the judiciary (magistrate) under Art. 15.17 CCrP., and must be performed by a magistrate pursuant to state and federal law.

      Yet your Ordinance says the officer may exercise his own judgment upon whether or not he will perform OR ignore his duty held under state and federal law for taking the arrested person before a magistrate, such as
      5. “The arresting officer believes that the safety of persons (including the subject) would be imminently endangered by the release of the subject.”

      Question:
      Does exercise by police of this authority violate separation of powers exclusively held and performed by judiciary under CCrP 15.17 ?
      Answer:
      The City knows that it does.

      For the above reasons the powers of "Cite-And-Release" authority CANNOT be provided to police officers under provisions of CCP 14.06(c), namely the law which the City adopted in order to enact their piddly-little alley cat that now roars in the face of state and federal law.

      Are you law enforcement, Mr. Adams? If so, you're aware how the City and County have been "reducing jail outsourcing costs" by throwing people out the side door of the jail for years in order to prevent taking them before a magistrate under duty of Art. 14.06. MUST TAKE OFFENDER BEFORE MAGISTRATE. Now you know why the City driven by a three-year old's mentality has enacted this bogus law. But if my purpose in life were to act as you do, for that reason I would not research what I've told you, in order to keep saying "Seems to me we should be proud of this policy, which creates cost savings while increasing greater liberty for county residents."

      • Well researched and well said!
        Laws are not arbitrary. They must be followed for the protection of our citizens. A city council has no business in law enforcement. The council exists to address the management and administration of the city. They do not exist to usurp the role of our state and federal government's legislative branches by enacting ordinances counter to state law to further their political agenda.
        P.S.- Does anyone really believe that our police department wants or needs a group of clueless political busybodies with zero law enforcement experience to tell them how to do their job?
        Our police department does an outstanding job!! They do not need politically motivated interference with their operations. Perhaps a better agenda would be for law enforcement to start digging into the affairs of local politicians. It would certainly be a more fruitful venture.

• Hello Ms. Wray,

  You rhetorically ask Alex Villalobos whether he's on the "Brady List" in Hays County.

  First, such a list is independently compiled by local district attorneys statewide and
  consists of name of police officers who the district attorney will not call as a witness
  for the state, ever. Many reasons many paths by which an officer arrives upon the list,
  however, once it occurs, word gets up the trail pretty quick and that officer from that
  time forward will not be allowed to act as an arresting officer for his agency in any
  significant case, when possible.

  Because a district attorney is not required to disclose the name of any witness known to him
  for any reason unless he intends to rely upon them at trial, the contents of his or her "Brady List"
  thus remains "work product" immune to disclosure at all times by operation of law.

  So may I make a suggestion? Why not go over the government center and ask the clerk for
  help using the public terminal for searching whether Villalobos has been called as a witness by
  the state since the time that Texas State University began investigating claims made against him beginning in 2013. That might tell you something that Wes Mau and Alex won't.