by Elizabeth Findell
WESLACO — Eleven police
officers stood in solidarity at the Weslaco Municipal Court Monday afternoon as
they watched a judge charge one of their own.
Cpl. Alvino Flores, 34, turned
himself in Monday morning after an arrest warrant was issued last week,
accusing him of abusing his off-the-clock job as an apartment security officer.
But the peers supporting him
believed the charges were a bogus side effect of ongoing battles between the
department’s majority police union and its recently-appointed interim chief.
The arrest stems from two
incidents that occurred last year at the Weslaco Hills apartment complex, a
low-income housing complex where Flores is allowed to live for free in exchange
for providing off-duty security services.
Criminal complaints accuse
Flores of using that position to improperly break open a door to an apartment
in July 2013 and allow an abusive boyfriend of the tenet to enter and take
items from the apartment.
“Flores allowed Mr. Enrique,
the suspect, to enter the apartment and take what he wanted,” the complaint
reads. “Mrs. Del Angel stated she was afraid of her boyfriend so she locked the
front door… She was shocked when Off-Duty/Courtesy Officer Flores broke the
door down.”
The complaint acknowledges that
the manager of the apartment complex had told Flores to break the door and that
another on-duty Weslaco police officer was present and allowed the action to
take place.
A second incident occurred in
November, when Flores began looking into an unspecified crime that occurred at
the apartments. After reporting it to the Police Department, Flores began
questioning a teenage boy named Nathon Carrion, according to the complaint.
The complaint says Carrion’s
mother let Flores into their apartment, where he began going through the boy’s
clothing, looking for evidence. It then accuses Flores of tackling Carrion to
the ground and sitting on him, causing his mother to call the police.
The criminal complaint gives no
indication of what may have caused Flores to tackle Carrion.
Monday, Weslaco Municipal Judge
Carlos Garza charged Flores with two counts of abuse of official capacity,
assault, criminal mischief and criminal trespass, all misdemeanors. The judge
gave Flores a $10,000 personal recognizance bond and his attorney, David
Willis, transported him personally to the Hidalgo County jail.
The municipal court initially
refused to give copies of the criminal complaints to reporters, claiming they
needed to file formal requests for public information. But, because municipal
court records are, by law, not subject to the Public Information Act — because
they are court records and need to be available immediately — The Monitor
requested that the city attorney intervene.
Flores declined to comment to
the media, at his attorney’s advice, but told the judge he didn’t want to be
treated any differently than anyone else arrested.
POLITICS AT PLAY?
Willis told reporters that
Flores, a 14-year officer at the department, was innocent and called his arrest
“a travesty” and a waste of money.
“Prior to the interim Chief
Sergio Ramirez becoming interim chief, he has never been the subject of an
internal affairs investigation or ever had a crime charged against him,” Willis
said. “Since Sergio Ramirez has become interim chief, he has been the subject
of internal affairs investigations and he has just here read five charges against
him.”
Flores is the former president
of the Weslaco Municipal Police Union, whose members have claimed they’ve been
the target of retaliation since Ramirez was appointed in May.
The union, a branch of the
Texas Municipal Police Association (TMPA), filed grievances claiming its
members were demoted while members of the Weslaco Law Enforcement Association,
a branch of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas (CLEAT) were
promoted.
Most recently, sixteen TMPA
members filed a federal lawsuit Friday, claiming the chief violated their First
Amendment rights to freedom of association by targeting them for demotions and
internal affairs investigations.
Several of the incidents
relayed in the lawsuit involved Flores, but he is not a plaintiff, most likely
because his arrest warrant had already been issued at the time the lawsuit was
filed.
The lawsuit notes that Flores
was the only person formally reprimanded for a recognition event for the
department’s former chaplain that resulted in an internal affairs
investigation. It also says he received permission for his off-duty work at
Weslaco Hills apartments, but that Ramirez issued an order last month
terminating such agreements, which affected only Flores and two other officers,
all TMPA members.
Ramirez did not return phone
calls Friday or Monday to discuss the issues with the union, or to answer why
charges were filed against Flores so long after the incidents occurred.
The city confirmed that Flores
has applied for the permanent chief of police position.
