Houston News: Deputies

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Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Deputies: Couple tied up in home, husband killed

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A husband was tied up and stabbed to death and his wife was found restrained in a closet last night in their Kelsey Meadows home in what appears to be a deadly home invasion.

Jaime and Sandra Melgar were attacked in their home in the 9500 block of Kelsey Meadows Court. The couple was discovered by relatives who showed up at their home for an anniversary celebration. They found the garage door open and went inside.

Jaime, 52, was tied up in a closet. He had been stabbed to death, officials said.

His wife, Sandra, 53, told investigators she blacked out in a bathroom and then woke up in another closet restrained, but alive.

Homicide investigators aren't saying if the home was ransacked or if anything appeared to be missing. They are still working to gather suspect information.

Sandra Melgar has been interviewed extensively by investigators. She is now back home.

"Ms. Melgar says they were in the bathroom together, her and her husband, and at some time she blacked out and the next thing she remembers is waking up in the closet tied up," said Sgt. Robert Spurgeon with the Harris County Sheriff's Office.

Meanwhile, neighbors and relatives are shocked by the crime and anxious to find out who's behind it.

"I think we're all in shock because nothing like this has ever happened here before. We don't know what happened, if it was it totally random, in which case it could happen to anybody," said a neighbor who we're identifying only as 'Ann.' "You see all the pretty Christmas lights and then there is police and a crime scene down the street."

An autopsy is scheduled for the victim today.

local

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Thursday, December 20, 2012

Deputies investigating woman's shooting death in SW Harris County

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Harris County deputies are trying to figure out who killed a woman found dead in a driveway.

This happened at a home on Las Brisas near Paso Real in southwest Harris County this morning. Deputies say they found a woman dead in the driveway. She had been shot to death.

The medical examiner left with the woman's body and the car in the driveway was also taken away for the investigation. They're not releasing the woman's identity or age.

A family member who identified himself as the victim's uncle told Eyewitness News that the victim was at this location because her sister lives at the house.

A man with bags over his hands was led away from the scene, but so far investigators have given out very little information. We'll bring you updates as we get them.

local, elissa rivas

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Sunday, December 9, 2012

Deputies: Boy, 11, nearly abducted at Montgomery Co. bus stop

Pooja LodhiaCONROE, TX (KTRK) -- Montgomery County investigators are turning to the public as they look into a claim of an attempted abduction. A Conroe ISD student says he was waiting at a bus stop when two men tried to take him.

The alleged encounter happened Monday morning along County West Drive in the Grangerland area.

Investigators already have combed through the area, trying to find out who would try to kidnap 11-year-old Ricardo Meza.

"Two guys pulled up whenever I was alone," Ricardo told us.

Ricardo was waiting at his bus stop on Monday morning when he says a gray Toyota hopped a curb and came right at him.

"They pulled up and told me to get into the car and I said no, and whenever I went to run, my backpack swung forward and the passenger punched me in the back," he said.

Ricardo says he first tried to run home.

"They said that they know where I lived," he said.

So Ricardo ran two miles away, to the Subway restaurant where his mother, Wanda Meza, works.

"He was crying hysterically and I was calming him down," she said.

Montgomery County deputies haven't been able to find or even identify any suspects.

Now this mother is asking for your help finding those responsible.

"You expect them to be safe, going to walk to the school bus or doing anything," she said. "This could be any one of our children, you know, not just mine."

Ricardo was not injured during the incident, but he is still shaken up from it.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked contact the Montgomery Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigations Office at 936-760-5876.

conroe, local

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Deputies: Kids found near drugs, guns after murder

Jaime Ryan Devita, 33, was arrested for murder, and April Nicole Devita, 30, was arrested and taken to jail for endangering a child.

CONROE, TX (KTRK) -- A Conroe couple is facing charges after a neighbor was shot to death, and their young children were allegedly found near guns and drugs.

Montgomery County Sheriff's Office deputies were called to a home in the 16900 block of West Hammon, just west of Conroe around 5pm Thursday. Deputies arrived found Marcus "Dale" Fisher, 51, had been shot and killed, reportedly by a neighbor. Jaime Ryan Devita, 33, was arrested at the shooting scene for murder.

Deputies say Fisher arrived on his motorcycle at a nearby residence of Devita to visit friends. Fisher was reportedly confronted in the street by Devita, and during an argument was hit with a fatal shotgun blast to the chest.

Witnesses told deputies that Devita's wife and children had been seen just before the shooting, but now could not be found. When deputies entered the Devitas' home, they found the wife and children hiding. Inside the residence deputies say they discovered an indoor marijuana grow operation and guns within easy reach of the children, ages two and four.

April Nicole Devita, 30, was arrested and taken to jail for endangering a child. The children were released to Children's Protective Services.

The investigation continued into the night by crime scene, homicide and narcotic investigators. Additional charges are possible.

conroe, local

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Saturday, October 13, 2012

Deputies seize 400 lbs of pot, $35,000 in cash from Conroe home

Montgomery County sheriff's deputies say they found 400 pounds of marijuana in a search of one Conroe home.

CONROE, TX (KTRK) -- Montgomery County sheriff's deputies took 400 pounds of marijuana off the streets in a search of one Conroe home on Monday.

Authorities received a tip that marijuana was being stored at the home. In addition to the pot, deputies found two stolen rifles and $35,000 in cash at the residence on Coker Road. Claudia Nohemi Moreno, 34, was arrested and taken to jail.

Moreno is charged with felony possession of marijuana.

conroe, local

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Sunday, September 30, 2012

Deputies stumble upon pounds of illicit drugs

While trying to serve an arrest warrant in northwest Harris County on Thursday, deputies discovered approximately 7 pounds of marijuana, 3.2 pounds of cocaine, 1.5 grams of methamphetamine, an assault rifle and various scales.

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Deputies executing a arrest warrant at northwest Harris County home ended up arresting another person after they stumbled upon pounds of illicit drugs at the residence.

The drugs were discovered Thursday at a home in the 9700 block of Fairbanks North Houston, according to the Harris County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies executing an arrest warrant said they immediately smelled marijuana upon entering the home. During a search of the residence, they discovered approximately 7 pounds of marijuana, 3.2 pounds of cocaine, 1.5 grams of methamphetamine, an assault rifle and various scales.

A woman who was inside the home was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana. She's been identified as 23-year-old Ricarda Carolina Nino-Munoz.

The person who is at center of the arrest warrant was not at the house and remains at-large.

local

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Thursday, September 27, 2012

Deputies: Wife shoots husband in fight to protect family cat

SPRING, TX (KTRK) -- An argument between a husband and his wife ends in gunfire, sending him to the hospital, and landing her in custody. Investigators say the shooter was a woman taking aim at her own husband to protect her cat.

"Our neighborhood is so quiet," said neighbor Penny Brooks. "I just don't want anything like this to be happening in our neighborhood."

It happened at a home on Seaton Valley in northwest Harris County at 7:15am Tuesday. Precinct 4 Constables got a call from a man who said he had been shot, allegedly by his wife.

"I didn't hear anything," Brooks recalled. "I didn't know about it until I started to walk my dog, and there were constables and all sorts of cars out here."

Once they got to the scene, Precinct 4 constables began to piece together an unusual story. The wife, Audrey Miller, allegedly shot her husband because he threatened to kill one of the couple's cats.

"She must have loved that cat more than him," said neighbor Chris Russell. "There's something wrong with that no matter how you look at it."

Investigators say the exact reason of the initial argument is still unclear. But they do believe that after the couple argued, the husband threatened the life of one of the cats and that's when Miller apparently shot her husband in the side of the stomach while both were in the backyard.

He was treated and released from the hospital. Miller, 42, has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. All the cats were unhurt, while a neighborhood remains puzzled.

"I wouldn't want anyone to be shooting any animal, period," Brooks said. "We're definitely animal lovers."

The husband returned home Tuesday afternoon, and while he declined to talk on camera, he did say that he is all right but the situation is far from over.

local, miya shay

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Monday, September 17, 2012

Deputies: Man hit by vehicle, left for dead

Harris County Precinct 4 Constable's Office deputies at the scene of a hit-and-run auto-pedestrian accident in northwest Harris County

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Investigators say a 24-year-old man was run over and left to die on a north Harris County road this morning, and they are trying to figure out who is responsible.

Harris County Precinct 4 Constable's Office officials think the victim was hit around 3am in the 23200 block of Aldine Westfield near Ciderwood.

A passerby found the man next to the road in a tire display in front of a garage business. They believe he had been there several hours. He was still alive and was rushed to Ben Taub General Hospital.

At last check, the victim was in critical condition.

Authorities say they found some car parts near the crash to help them identify the vehicle.

local

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Friday, September 14, 2012

Harris Co. deputies ask to ignore some burglar alarms

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Harris County sheriff's deputies are asking for permission not to respond every time a burglar alarm goes off. They say they have been wasting time on too many false alarms, but they think they have a solution.

The HCSO says it all boils down to tens of thousands of false alarms each year, burglary alarms that tie up deputies and waste thousands of taxpayer dollars. So it's considering a big change, including reserving the right not to respond to some of those calls. But residents say, at what cost?

"I think they should come out no matter what," resident Gerard Martinez said.

Martinez says false alarm or not, if the burglary alarm in his house or others in his northeast Harris County neighborhood are going off, he believes sheriff's deputies should respond immediately.

"To alarm somebody that you are in distress -- that's the purpose of an alarm," he said.

Right now, every time a residential or commercial burglary alarm goes off a deputy responds right away. But Harris County sheriff's officials say the problem is most times it's a false alarm. In fact, the sheriff's office reports out of 79,000 burglary alarms last year, 99.5 percent were false alarms.

"This is diverting deputies on the street, preventing them from answering other calls for service and can endanger the public and prevent them from answering other calls," Harris County Sheriff's Office Maj. Robert Van Pelt said.

So sheriff's officials tell us they are now considering "reserving the right not to respond to burglary alarms that have not been verified by the alarm company and resident as a true emergency" or those 'sounding' alarms that have not been properly registered with the county as required.

"When you have such a high amount of false alarms and limited resources, as far as patrol deputies on the streets, you have to make the best use of your resources and this would do that and it would not compromise public safety," Van Pelt said.

For Martinez, the potential change is too risky.

"It could be deadly," he said.

This would not include panic, holdup, fire or EMS alarms. There's also a $75 fine after the fifth false alarm. They're considering moving that up to the third false alarm.

local, samica knight

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Deputies: Two men shot over dice game in N. Harris Co.

Police say a group of men were playing dice in the parking lot of some apartments off Greens Road and West Hardy last night when a fight broke out.

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Sheriff's deputies say an argument over a dice game escalated into a shooting overnight.

Some men were playing dice in the parking lot of an apartment complex on Greens Road near Hardy when the fight started.

Police say at least nine shots were fired. Two men were hit in the legs. They are expected to survive.

Authorities have two suspects in the case. They are still on the loose.

local

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Thursday, September 13, 2012

Training for more deputies on patrol

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A plan to put more "boots on the ground" in Harris County is finally coming to fruition. Dozens of Harris County Sheriff's deputies who used to work in the jail are now ready to walk a beat, thanks to some special re-training.

The Harris Co. Sheriff's Office invited us to get an up-close look at just how the jail deputies are transitioning back to street patrol.

This is an election year. And Sheriff Adrian Garcia told me the transition is not about politics. He says it's about increasing visibility and cutting crime.

Burglary victim Fabiola Rocha recalled, "They just broke the windows, and they tried to steal my register."

Workers at All Paints say they know about crime first-hand. Their shop in north Harris County was recently hit by burglars. They agreed all of Houston needs more security.

That need for an increased presence is partly why 25 Harris County deputies who'd spent years working in the jail are back in class, now training to tackle street patrol.

Major Ronnie Silvio with the HCSO Patrol Bureau said, "We're down approximately 250 patrolmen over the past two and a half years. Now being able to get people on the street we feel is going to help us go from a reactive response to crime, to a proactive response."

This training and transition is part of Sheriff Garcia's push to get a large number of deputies back on the street, while hiring more than 200 civilian officers to take their places in the jail. It's part of a plan the sheriff announced back in March due to a lifted hiring freeze and coming in $3 million under budget.

"We've had 16 sucessfully deployed," Sheriff Garcia said. "We've got 25 in cue right now that are completing the training. That'll get us to 41. And we've got three more classes planned to redeploy folks out into the field."

These deputies must go through a rigorous 20 week training before they can fully work patrol beats.

"They'll spend about six weeks in the classroom doing different scenarios such as officer safety, shoot, don't shoot, traffic stops," Major Silvio said.

The remaining weeks will be spent in patrol cars in field training.

The workers at All Paints say they look forward to seeing more deputies on patrol.

Right now about 575 deputies are patrol. The sheriff says he hopes to have an additional 100 deputies back on patrol by the end of the year.

local, demond fernandez

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Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Deputies investigating possible drive-by shooting

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Deputies were investigating a possible drive-by shooting Sunday in northeast Harris County.

It happened on East Mount Houston near Homestead.

Deputies tell us one man was shot but he is expected to survive his injuries.

It's not yet clear if the victim was targeted or if the shooting was random.

At last check, the shooter remained on the loose.

local

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Friday, May 18, 2012

Deputies' actions before SWAT scene questioned

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A woman was attacked in her own home by her husband, a man who was supposed to stay away from her. She'd filed paperwork to get protection, but it may have been ignored.

The woman is recovering after the attack. And now, there are questions as to why her husband was let go after he was confronted by Precinct 4 deputy constables. The department is now investigating what happened.

Precinct 4's Assistant Chief Mark Herman says they are launching an investigation after we brought this to his attention.

On May 11 at 6:30pm, Precinct 4 deputies and HPD SWAT officers created an armed camp on Beacham Street in Lakewood Forest.

"Within minutes, we had three snipers on our balcony," neighbor Tom Hale said.

The standoff would last six hours. A husband stabbed his wife's chest and barricaded himself in a room, periodically firing a gun at deputies. Eventually, he shot himself in the chest and died.

Tom and Sherry Hale watched it unfold from across the street.

"Rapid fire and the room, where the husband was barricaded in, lit up when the shots went off. We could see that," Hale said.

Court records show the wife, Jeanne Galladora, filed a protective order against husband, James, for choking her. That was May 6, five days before the standoff. A judge ordered him not to contact her. And not to go within 200 feet of their home. But he did -- twice.

"On May 11, right after midnight, I think a family member brought him to that location to get his truck," Herman said.

The husband came back to his house around 1am on May 11, arguably, violating the protective order. But he wasn't arrested.

"When they found him sitting on the curb down the street from the house, he still had needles in him and IVs where he had voluntarily just walked out of a local hospital. EMS hadn't even checked him out," Herman said.

Deputies let him go. It's still unclear why. But then he came back again on the same night, stabbed his wife and killed himself.

"If this guy would've been arrested, he wouldn't have been able to come back?" we asked Herman.

"You know what? I hate to speculate on that," he replied.

Herman says he's looking into what happened the early morning hours of May 11 and what actions his officers took.

"When you initially brought up calls being there, that was the first I heard about it," Herman said.

He says that could take days or weeks.

"Should've arrested him, should've let the judge decide if he's violating the protective order," KTRK legal analyst Joel Androphy said.

Androphy points to a state law that says officers shall arrest for a violation of a protective order. If that's the case, the standoff may never have happened.

"If there is probable cause to believe he violated that order, you arrest him and let the judge decide whether he did or not," Androphy said.

Galladora's wife survived the stabbing and is out of the hospital, recovering.

We will follow up with Herman, who said the department will get to the bottom of it.

local, sonia azad

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Deputies: Shots fired during suspect chase in north Harris County

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Three people are in custody and the search is on for two others after a reported chase and shootout in north Harris County this afternoon.

Harris Co. Precinct 4 Constable Ron Hickman says a group of suspects robbed a Sprint cell phone store at I-45 and Cypresswood in the Spring area. Hickman says the suspects were armed and told the manager to put phones into a plastic bag, then forced the manager into the back of the store.

The suspects fled and the manager set off the panic alarm in the store, jumped into his vehicle and called 911 while following the suspects, according to Hickman.

The suspects spotted the manager following them and fired shots into his vehicle. He was not injured.

Precinct 4 deputy constables and Harris Co. Sheriff's deputies then located and pursued the suspects' vehicle, which eventually crashed into a pole near I-45 and Rankin.

Authorities say they apprehended three of the suspects, but the search continues for the other two.

We'll continue to follow this story and bring you any new information on Eyewitness News or here on abc13.com.

local

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Friday, May 11, 2012

Deputies: Revenge against boy's dad was motive for woman in child's kidnapping

STAFFORD, TX (KTRK) -- The woman accused of kidnapping a young boy for several hours earlier this week was apparently angry at the boy's father. That's according to investigators who say the woman and the child's father had previously had an affair.

Deputies say they don't remember a case with this many unexpected twists and turns. They tell us the suspect was motivated to get back at the boy's father -- her former lover.

As Kismat Momin appeared in court Wednesday morning, we obtained court documents that expose new details in the kidnapping for which she is accused. Investigators allege the abduction of nine-year-old Amsal Dhuka was to seek revenge against the boy's father.

Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office Chief Craig Brady explained, "He had about a three-year sexual relationship with the suspect. That relationship had ended sometime in the past."

Detectives say Momin met Amsal Monday as he got off the bus from school at the front of the apartment complex near Sugar Land where both live. She allegedly told him his parents sent her to pick him up.

Investigators say she drove with him for hours, all the way into Galveston County, only stopping to get him food, and for them to sleep. Court documents indicate that Momin told the boy that "gang members with guns were chasing them."

"I don't know what she intended to accomplish by simply taking the child," Brady said. "There's no indication that she intended to harm him."

Momin allegedly left the boy finally at a Muslim worship center in Stafford at about 6am Tuesday, more than 14 hours after he disappeared. Investigators now say she told her husband on Sunday of her plan to kidnap the boy, and that she informed him she had actually done it at about 6pm Monday. Though dozens of investigators and volunteers searched fruitlessly, investigators say Momin's husband didn't tell them she had Amsal until early Tuesday morning.

Momin's attorney would not field questions, saying only this:

"We maintain her innocence at this time," attorney Asif Sayani said. "There's nothing more we can say because there's still a pending investigation. That's all the comments we can give."

Investigators say Amsal's father suspected early on that Momin might be involved. He actually called her, but she denied it.

Momin remains in custody at the Fort Bend County Jail. Bond has been set at $125,000.

stafford, sugar land, local, kevin quinn

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Deputies: Bicyclist killed by hit-and-run driver

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A man was arrested overnight after deputies say he was so drunk he didn't even know he ran over and killed someone.

The victim -- a 53-year-old man -- was riding his bike on Jones Road near Fallbrook when he was hit and killed just before midnight.

Deputies say the driver who hit him took off, but a license plate fell off the cargo van. Minutes later, they tracked down the van's owner, who told deputies his friend was driving.

They then tracked down that friend at his home. They say he was slumped over asleep on his stairs. Deputies say he was so intoxicated that he had fallen asleep on top of the keys to the van. Deputies eventually arrested him after they had to use a Taser on him to get him to comply.

"He admitted to being the driver of that van," said Sgt S. Wolverton with the Harris County Sheriff's Office. "He says he does not recall striking anything in the roadway, however."

Deputies say that driver failed a field sobriety test and now faces at least one felony charge and probably more.

local

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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Hidden cameras document apparent misuse of deputies in Precinct 1

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A Precinct 1 commander says deputies lived in fear of a veteran Houston constable. Now, hidden cameras document the apparent misuse of deputies by the now former Constable Jack Abercia.

Jack Abercia denies he lined his pockets, misused his deputies, and that's why we often do surveillance, so we can see how your money is being spent.

You can appreciate why Jack Abercia isn't happy. He'd just been indicted on bribery and conspiracy charges.

"Pitiful, pitiful," Pct. 1 Sgt. Rita Britt said.

"Does he deserve this, do you think?" we asked her.

"Yes sir," she said.

And Rita Britt should know.

"I've been there 29 years," Britt said.

She runs a team of deputies at Precinct 1 who bring juveniles to justice, and now she's retiring -- and speaking out.

"Whatever the boss asked them to do something, or told them to do something -- told them to rather than ask them -- they felt like they had to do it," Britt said.

The 13-count federal indictment accuses the constable of enlisting deputies to perform personal errands on county time.

"We have deputies taking materials to your bay house. Is that an appropriate use of deputies?" we asked Abercia.

"That ain't true. That's ain't true on county time," he said.

Even on a morning off, this deputy is picking up vinyl siding at a place in The Heights, not for his own house; he'll drive it down to the constable's bay house in La Marque.

"To me, it would be very demeaning because, like I say, you don't have a choice in it," Britt said.

Another deputy does work at the constable's million-dollar house off Memorial, and he's on duty. Our hidden camera can prove that wasn't much of a secret at Precinct 1.

"I'm telling you, that's his own can of worms," ex-Pct. 1 Chief Michael Butler says on hidden camera.

Rita Britt says one of her investigators could disappear for weeks at a time, the perks of being one of Jack Abercia's cabana boys.

"Those guys would be untouchable and there's nothing you can do about it, so it was frustrating," Britt said.

Now, a top commander admits what life was like under the Abercia regime.

"There was intimidation going on?" we asked Harris County Pct. 1 Chief Deputy J.C. Mosier.

"Of course," he said.

"And there was fear?" we asked.

"Oh you can see it," he said.

Here is a sergeant and a lieutenant teaming up to pick up bread from a shop on Washington, and we mean lots of bread. The sergeant takes a detour to pick up building supplies; then they meet up again at a funeral home. A uniformed deputy joins them; three lawmen picking up cases of water -- one after another, after another. The sergeant will take the morning provisions down to the bay house for the constable. And there's Abercia, sitting on the back porch. It's 10:30 in the morning, a work day for most of us.

"So they were all being paid? All those people were being paid?" we asked Abercia.

"I got canceled checks. I got canceled checks," he said.

"OK, can we have them?" we asked.

"No," he said.

Canceled checks the constable now refuses to show us, and at Precinct 1, deputies can't work an extra job without written permission and there are no records of any work for the Abercias.

Even back in October, they were worried 13 Undercover was coming, and they even knew what the constable would say and joked about the way he'd say it.

"I told y'all, I told y'all, I told y'all to be off the g****** clock," Butler says on hidden camera.

Of course Chief Butler is now accused of taking bribes too, a widening scandal of Harris County constables and the way they are allowed to treat their county employees.

"Quit taking advantage of your position, be fair, be fair to your employees, be fair to the public; quit putting yourself up on a pedestal," Britt said.

Check out the videos and confrontations you'll only see on 13 Undercover Interactive, including some of the exclusive hidden camera video we took during this investigation. And stay tuned Thursday night, because Precinct 1 was worried we'd find another of their secrets, and of course, we did.

13 undercover, wayne dolcefino

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Video shows deputies running errands on your dime

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A 13 Undercover surveillance team has some pictures you'll want to see. After Watergate, it was all about the president's men. Now, it's all about the constable's men and what they did for the boss.

The FBI says the constable used some of his deputies as personal errand boys when they should have been protecting you. What do you think? Does a constable really need a chauffeur?

The last time you saw Lt. Ken Wiener, he was in handcuffs. The guy next to him, he's FBI. But before Wiener found out he was facing decades in prison, he got the chance to meet us.

"Got a lot of questions for you," we told Wiener.

"Well, I don't know if I've got a lot of answers for you," he replied.

He's been constable Abercia's right-hand man for years, and he's not cheap; you pay him $72,000 a year.

"What about all the errands and stuff you had him do for you and your family?" we asked Abercia.

"No, no, y'all are wrong," Abercia said.

"I've got it on video," we replied.

"Well, you may have it on video, but it wasn't me giving him information to do stuff," Abercia said.

But we've got the video. It sure looks like you were paying Ken Wiener an awful lot of money to be an errand boy for the Abercia family.

"You also chauffeur around the constable and his family?" we asked Wiener.

"Not his family, no," he replied.

But here's Wiener picking up the Abercia clan in the constable's county car. He'll drive them to meet the constable for lunch at the Tejas Grill downtown, and he doesn't even get to eat with them.

We know the Abercia family has their own car. It's a Lincoln, because we followed Ken Wiener when he picked up the family car and drove it across town to a vehicle inspection place in Garden Oaks.

"No, never happened," Wiener said.

"You never took his wife's car in for any service?" we asked.

"Never."

"At any station?"

"No Wayne, I didn't. That's all I can say," Wiener said.

The constable announced his retirement days before the FBI put him in chains. See the walker he used to charge at cameramen? Well the constable has a broken foot and he claimed that's why we saw the lieutenant driving him around.

"When I got sick, yeah he did take me places," Abercia said.

"Just because you were sick?" we asked.

"That's right," he said.

Wiener gave us that broken foot story, too. Maybe they didn't realize we've been doing surveillance since last July. You can see the constable walking just fine when Ken picked him and the misses up. Of course, the constable gets to sit in the back.

"We need a top-to-bottom, probably, investigation of everything that's been going on in our office," Harris County Pct. 1 Chief Deputy J.C. Mosier said.

Lt. Wiener has one other problem. During the work day, we watched him leave his county job to be a paid courier for a steel company -- traveling from the south side, then to the north side, then to the bank.

"He takes his own time to do those things, and I don't have anything to do with it. I don't approve extra jobs -- J.C. Mosier does," Abercia said.

"Who approved that?" we asked Wiener.

"Everybody, it's just an extra job," he replied.

"No, who approved the extra job?" we pressed.

"I guess J.C. Mosier had something to do with it. He knows about it," he replied.

"I knew nothing about SSS Steel and what they were doing, what it was. Never knew it was an extra job," Mosier told us.

Wiener says the courier job is done on his lunch hour and after work, but time sheets and our hidden camera video don't help him.

"Well then he's got a problem," Abercia said.

Chief Butler predicted the constable would say just that, and thanks to our hidden camera, you can hear it for yourself.

"Jack would throw Wiener to the wolves?" a deputy can be heard asking Butler on hidden camera.

"Yes," Butler replies.

"And just say he didn't know nothing about it?" the deputy asks.

"He didn't know nothing about it," Butler says, confirming the deputy's statement.

"Knowing (expletive) well he knows?" the deputy asks.

"Yep," Butler says on hidden camera.

Wiener had one last chauffeur job last week. He brought the constable's wife over to FBI headquarters after Abercia was arrested. Wiener had no clue then he was about to get arrested too.

Wiener is now facing federal charges, and Precinct One tells us he's just been fired. He may not be the last casualty of this scandal still unfolding.

On Wednesday, hidden video of the guys some people at Precinct One like to call the constable's cabana boys.

13 undercover, wayne dolcefino

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Thursday, January 12, 2012

Man fleeing from deputies damages home during crash

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A man was inside his home when a suspect trying to escape from deputies crashed into a wood fence, sending debris flying into his home.

Deputies started chasing the suspect in northwest Harris County. They say the suspect lost control of his vehicle on Antoine near Halstead and plowed into the wood fence around 2am.

A man was asleep inside his home when he heard the crash and then saw parts of the fence fly into his window. Debris from the fence left a hole in part of the man's house.

"You know I was traumatized. I was freaked out," said homeowner Jimmy Babaer. "This time of the morning, you don't think you're gonna hear explosions and glass going everywhere."

Babeer wasn't hurt and the suspect who caused the crash was arrested at the scene.

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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Sheriff's deputies protest over health insurance premiums increase

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Retired and active Harris County sheriff's deputies picked up signs in protest, saying promises made a long time ago about their health insurance are being broken.

Sadly, it's something we're seeing a lot more of in this economy. Tough decisions and in this case, it's retirees who helped protect Harris County who are paying the price.

These deputies are standing their ground. Those on fixed incomes struggling to make ends meet say this hits them especially hard.

As sheriff's deputies, they spent decades protecting Harris County; now they're wondering who's protecting them? On Tuesday, a large group of active duty and retired deputies gathered outside the downtown building where county commissioners meet to protest an increase in their health insurance premiums.

"When we were hired into the Harris County Sheriff's Office, we were promised that our benefits would be taken care of for life. We feel like they have reneged on that. They were disingenuous when they told us that," said Lee Bumpers with the African American Sheriff's Deputies League.

"It's not good for law enforcement and it's not good for Harris County," said

Plagued by budget constraints, Harris County commissioners recently voted to require retirees under 65 to pay for a portion of their health care -- $115 per month.

Of the 4,000 plus retirees, over 1,800 are under 65.

"Yes, it's a cost and it's something that I'm sure I wouldn't be happy about if I were one of them, but it's just a reality of the world we live in right now," said Harris County Judge Ed Emmett.

Those on fixed incomes are not happy and fear this change could hurt them the most. Others worry the commissioners are setting a dangerous precedent.

"Now when it comes time to pay the benefits aren't there or they are suddenly eroding and those are the things that trouble us significantly," said Bumpers.

Retirees living on fixed incomes say their health insurance rates have doubled.

local, andy cerota
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