Long-awaited Constable report short on details

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Wait till you see the long-awaited report on the constables. Is it a whitewash? You be the judge.

13 Undercover's been exposing possible wrongdoing in some of the constable's offices for months, and last week, we questioned why the county attorney hadn't taken action.

Maybe you didn't expect the county attorney to come down hard on the constables, but now there's not even a slap of the wrist.

What did high-priced county lawyers do in 10 long months? You'll see.

"We are reviewing facts, which do not look good. I can't say that they rise to the level of official misconduct or crimes, but they are serious," Terry O'Rourke told us last year.

That was Terry O'Rourke last year, after 13 Undercover had exposed possible wrongdoing in Victor Trevino's Precinct 6 office; alleged misuse of county equipment had now surfaced in May Walker's office; within months, another constable -- Jack Abercia -- would be in chains, arrested by the FBI for alleged bribes he denies.

"There is an investigation in the district attorney's office as well as a review in our office of all the conduct in Precinct 6 and other constable precincts," O'Rourke said.

Now, that long-awaited report has finally been issued and it took 10 months.

"It's a cut and paste job," KTRK legal analyst Joel Androphy said.

You have to read it to believe it. It won't take long, it's barely five pages long. The summary is just two sentences and it doesn't name names -- not one.

"Should they be embarrassed?" we asked Androphy.

"Embarrassed is not the word here -- incompetency," he replied.

So what does it say? It provides legal advice to the constables on how they can avoid breaking the law and a lot of it is plain common sense.

"A law student could have cut and pasted from the various different codes and produced this report within 30 minutes," Androphy said.

But did anyone break the law, violate county policies? Based on this report, who knows.

"Is the county attorney the public's lawyer or the constable's lawyer?" we asked Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan.

"The people of Harris County's attorney," he replied.

"They were elected to protect the public from the public officials, not the public officials from the public," Androphy said.

Your watchdog won't let you see what his office discovered along the way. Last week, we showed damaging emails that suggested they wanted to keep you in the dark. We showed you how a corruption report on another former county official was changed to take out some of the bad stuff. What happened to all that tough talk?

"Nobody is immune, that's our job," O'Rourke said.

"Does this look like a whitewash?" we asked Androphy.

"Totally," he said.

If you'd like to tell the county attorney what you think, here's his phone number: 713-755-5101.

On your behalf, we have demanded once again to see all those draft reports. In February, they claimed they had reviewed thousands of documents, interviewed several people. Who? What'd they say? Don't you have a right to know? After all, you paid for it.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more 13 Undercover »

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New details in officer shooting of man at Denny's

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- We're learning more about the controversy surrounding an officer-involved shooting outside a Houston restaurant last week. The man shot is still in the hospital tonight and faces charges of aggravated assault, but his attorney says it was the officer who was on the attack.

The Houston Police Department tells us the Internal Affairs investigation that's being conducted at police headquarters is still ongoing. In the meantime, Clemente Vela, 32, underwent a third surgery Tuesday to remove a bullet lodged in his hip.

All this as new claims are made that seem to poke holes in HPD's story that the off-duty officer shot Vela in self defense.

Last week, Houston police told us that off-duty HPD Officer Julio Lopez shot and wounded Vela outside a Denny's restaurant after Vela allegedly threatened him and his brother with a knife. First, there were conflicting accounts over what led up to the shooting, and now more questions are being raised over how the shooting itself unfolded and whether Vela was even armed.

"He thought he was going outside to get into a fist fight and ended up getting shot," said Vela's attorney, Richard Parker.

He says he is conducting his own investigation. Parker told us based on what he's been able to piece together from talking to nearly a dozen eyewitnesses, HPD's version of what transpired doesn't match up.

"Some witnesses have expressed to me that Mr. Vela had nothing in his hands, that when there were warning shots fired he turned around and raised his hands and was subsequently shot four times," said Parker.

Lopez's attorney says he's aware of the allegations and so are authorities investigating the incident. We talked to him last week on the day of the shooting.

"We went over what happened at the scene in preparation for his doing a walk through with Internal Affairs and homicide division and the DA's Office," said Lopez's attorney Chad Hoffman.

A key piece of evidence that could determine what really happened outside the Denny's last Thursday morning may already be in HPD's custody. Parker says he's been led to believe that surveillance cameras may have captured the shooting in the parking lot from two different angles. K

"Law enforcement has the upper hand here because they are the ones who decide who gets charged and who doesn't get charged and it seems that law enforcement is being a little too cozy in this investigation," said KTRK Legal Analyst Joel Androphy.

Ultimately a grand jury will decide whether Officer Lopez should face any criminal charges and which charges he should face.

Vela remains in the hospital in custody in ICU. He's been charged with aggravated assault with deadly weapon. His family is frustrated because they haven't been able to see him. Vela's attorney says the family posted bond, but is now encountering some red tape.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
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New details in wreck that killed 2 kids

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- We have new developments in the crash that killed a baby and a toddler and injured two other children. The SUV with the children inside had a total of 16 adults and kids -- that's more people than seatbelts.

It happened Sunday afternoon at Garrett and Beltway 8. But even if not all the children were buckled up, there's a chance no one will be charged with a crime. We hear a lot about buckling kids up in car seats, certainly for good reason, but that same law has a surprising stipulation that may apply to this deadly wreck. And there was another issue -- the traffic lights weren't working at the time. It's Edward Randall's job to notice things. He works overnight security at a construction site and one thing he notices often is when the traffic signals at the East Beltway feeder road and Garrett go dark. "They cut on and off through the night and sometimes for two to three hours," said Randall. Tonight, they are functioning fine, but yesterday afternoon there was a problem. According to Harris County Sheriff's Office investigators, CenterPoint Energy was working in the area and cut power around 12:30pm, so the traffic lights were out. Just one hour later, the roadway was littered with beach toys and two children were dead. Laura Abrego was just eight months old and 3-year-old Valeria Mendoza was also killed. Authorities say the SUV carrying 16 people -- a dozen of whom were children -- was heading northbound on the feeder when it collided with a pickup. The two who died were ejected, believed to not have been restrained. According to a little known section in the transportation code, it may not be against the law. "It does nothing to protect children," said KTRK Legal Analyst Joel Androphy. The child passenger safety seat requirement, it reads, does not apply when transporting a child in a vehicle in which all seats equipped with safety seat systems or seatbelts are occupied. It's likely more than just the two who died were not restrained, but the parents, according to our legal analyst, may be protected. "This law basically says if you have too many kids and not enough seats you can basically put the rest (of the kids) on someone's lap," said Androphy. Both vehicles should have treated the intersection as a four way stop since the traffic lights were out at the time, but investigators say neither did. They also say they don't think alcohol or speed was a factor in this accident, but it is still under investigation. (Copyright ©2011 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
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