RIO HONDO — A police officer was arrested for stealing tools
after a botched burglary in which he dropped a police pager at the crime scene,
the sheriff said Friday.
Officer Ernesto Yañez, 26, was identified as a suspect in
the Sept. 27 burglary of tools from a construction site at a residence near Rio
Hondo, Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio said Friday.
Yañez resigned from the police department on Oct. 1, and was
taken into custody Friday in Houston, Lucio said. Yañez was expected to be
returned to Cameron County.
A second suspect, 22-year-old Manuel Manzanares, also was
charged in connection with the burglary, authorities said.
Both men are believed to reside in the Rio Grande Valley.
“Anytime that a law enforcement officer is involved in
criminal activity, it is a black eye to law enforcement,” Lucio said. “Like
everything else, you have bad attorneys, bad doctors, bad teachers; people we
feel are pillars of the community, bankers and what have you.
“We wish that were not the case because it is a very
honorable profession. There are a lot of outstanding officers in the cities and
counties and throughout the state and the United States, but you will always
find some bad apples,” the sheriff added.
Lucio said that Yañez had tried to give himself a cover
story after he realized he had lost his pager.
The sheriff said Yañez called the homeowner at about 2 a.m.
on Sept. 28. When the homeowner did not answer the telephone, Yañez left a
message that he had been patrolling the area, had seen the gate to the property
open and had walked inside to check, Lucio said.
“Apparently he was trying to cover his tracks,” Lucio said.
Subsequently, the Sheriff’s Department was called to the Rio
Hondo Police Department, Lucio said, because Yañez had said that he had
arrested Manzanares, a suspect who allegedly committed the burglary.
Manzanares was arrested, with bond set at $5,000.
Manzanares later accused Yañez, saying that he had been
riding with Yañez in the police car, and that both had been involved in the
burglary.
Yañez, after he resigned, went to Houston. An arrest warrant
was issued for him.
The tools belonged to Gene Diaz, a retired U.S. Marshal, who
was doing the construction work for the Glatz family. Diaz noticed the gate to
the property open when he arrived for work, and realized that some of the tools
had been taken, the sheriff said.
Diaz found the pager.
Lucio said the tools that had been taken from the property
in the police unit had been recovered.
Rio Hondo Police Chief Weldon Matlock declined comment
except to say Yañez had not been a full-time police officer and had resigned.
The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards
and Education, the state’s peace officer licensing agency, said Friday that
Yañez had been a police officer in Port Isabel from 2009 through the spring of
2012.
Police Chief Wally Gonzalez was not available to comment on
why Yañez left the police force last year.
Yañez then held a dual commission as a reserve deputy
Cameron County constable in 2012, which overlapped for a few months with
service as a reserve officer in Rio Hondo.
Public records show that Manzanares was charged in Cameron
County with evading arrest and possession of marijuana in October 2009. The marijuana
charge was dismissed and he was given deferred adjudication on the evading
arrest charge after pleading guilty in February 2010. His 16-month sentence was
probated, but his probation was revoked and he was to serve 90 days in jail in
2011, the public record shows.
