Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - County settles money suit with migrants

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Thursday, April 4, 2002
County settles money suit with migrants

By Jeremy Brown
Caller-Times
   Farm workers claim a former Jim Wells County sheriff's deputy stole their savings
   ALICE - Jim Wells County has settled a lawsuit with two migrant farm workers who claim that a former sheriff's deputy stole their savings during a traffic stop.
   The county agreed to pay $5,500 to Guadalupe Limon and her husband, Jose Velasquez, said Myra Morris, an attorney who represented the county in the case.
   "When you figure the defense costs, and the deductible on the insurance, it was in the best interests of the county to settle the matter," she said. "There is no admission of liability on anybody's part."
   The incident is alleged to have occurred in October 2000, when Limon and Velasquez were returning to their home near McAllen after a stint doing construction work in Kansas, according to a complaint filed in the case.
   Before leaving Kansas, they withdrew their savings from the bank, and Limon was carrying more than $4,600 cash in her purse when Deputy Jose Perez pulled over her truck on U.S. Highway 281, near Alice, the complaint said.
   Missing money
   While Limon and Velasquez waited outside, Perez searched the truck, the complaint said. He found no drugs, guns or contraband, but when he let the couple return to their truck, $4,000 cash was missing, it said.
   The couple tried without success to get the money back.
   "Our clients are migrants," said their attorney, Paul Gabriel. "They're very poor. The amount of money that was taken from them in October was a substantial part of their yearly income."
   Gabriel said the couple was satisfied with the settlement.
   "They felt that they were wronged and they wanted their money back, and we were able to do that and get them a little bit more than that."
   Pursuing theft charges
   Jim Wells County Sheriff Oscar Lopez declined to comment on the case, other than to say that Perez no longer worked for him and that his department had investigated the matter and handed over its results to the Texas Rangers and District Attorney's Office.
   District Attorney Joe Frank Garza said that he was ready to present his case against Perez to the grand jury and that he would pursue a charge of theft. Perez could not be reached for comment.
   Instances of police abuse tend to be higher in South Texas than in other parts of the state, said Greg Gladden, president of the Texas affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union.
   "South Texas is a poorer part of the state and traditionally police abuse has been directed toward the poorer parts of our population," Gladden said.
   "People who are less educated and less financially well-heeled are much more likely not to know how to remedy police abuse."
   Still, the alleged misdeeds of a particular deputy do not necessarily imply any fault on the part of a sheriff, said Steve Westbrook, executive director of the Sheriff's Association of Texas.
   "Unfortunately, sheriff's offices are just like fraternal societies or sororities or churches or any other kind of business," he said.
   "They have people who crop up and kind of go the wrong way."

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