ROCKPORT – Aransas County prosecutors won’t be accepting cases from the Rockport Police Department due to an ongoing dispute they said relates to the accuracy of case reports.
Aransas County District Attorney, Kristen Barnebey said her office won’t accept cases from the Rockport Police Department until she’s sure the department is delivering accurate reports.
On July 28th, Barnebey’s office stopped accepting cases involving a specific police officer. In her statement, she claimed the officer was profiling defendants with whom he had previous interactions. Her office reportedly met with the officer to discuss those issues and concerns about his testimony; a meeting which the officer was said to have recorded.
“The unethical nature of that was that the officer did not say that he was recording. He has been disciplined for that through the police department,” said Rockport Mayor C.J. Wax.
Barnebey stated in a press release that she asked both the officer and chief of police to hand over that recording, but they refused. That refusal, along with concerns that no corrective action had been taken by the department, and that the department had not taken appropriate steps to prevent issues with reporting accuracy moving forward were cited by Barnebey in her decision to refuse cases from the department.
In the last 2 weeks, the county attorney has dismissed 17 cases, nine of which involved felony charges; but city officials want to reassure residents.
“We will continue to enforce the law the way it’s supposed to be in our community. We will do that. What the county attorney chooses to do is actually a question for her not for me,” said Mayor Wax.
The mayor said he is in contact with the county attorney and hopes they can reach an agreement soon.
“This is not a free fire zone, our police force is a top notch police force and they will continue to do their work,” said Wax.
We reached out to Barnebey’s office regarding this story but they had not gotten back to us at time of writing.
Meanwhile, misdemeanor cases will still be heard in municipal court.
Source: http://www.kristv.com