A state grand jury indicted two more former El Paso police officers on charges stemming from an investigation into misappropriation of grant-funded overtime that has resulted in 18 officers leaving the Police Department.
The investigation, resignations and indictments have become one of the biggest scandals to hit the Police Department in recent memory.
The grand jury on Thursday indicted ex-officers Luis Acosta and Joshua Paulson on charges of tampering with government records with intent to defraud.
Acosta and Paulson left the department last year. Paulson is now a deputy in the U.S. Marshals Service.
Last month, two other former officers were indicted on similar felony charges after city auditors and internal affairs investigators last summer began looking into discrepancies in overtime pay funded through grants.
"It's unfortunate it's happened, but that's the consequence when you make bad decisions and violate the public trust," said City Manager Joyce Wilson.
The indictment stated that Acosta faces 18 counts of tampering with government records for allegedly falsifying information on department daily activity reports related to issuing traffic citations during a three-month period in spring 2009.
The total amount of money allegedly misappropriated has not been disclosed.
City documents show Acosta was paid more than $20,600 in overtime in fiscal year 2009, including $12,201 from the Selective Traffic Enforcement Program, or STEP.
STEP grants issued by the state and federal governments help police agencies pay for officers who work in traffic enforcement and look for drunken drivers.
Documents stated Acosta was paid a total of $12,725 in overtime in fiscal 2010 and a total of $9,896 in overtime in fiscal 2011.
Acosta, 43, resigned on Sept. 23 after the inquiry began into the grant funding. He had been with the department for 17 years.
After his resignation, Acosta was one of five former officers who filed for a court injunction, claiming the department had an illegal quota system for traffic tickets, a claim that police and city officials denied, saying the real problem was falsified time sheets.
As of early Friday evening, Acosta did not appear on logs as having been booked into the El Paso County Jail.
Paulson, 31, faces two counts of tampering with government records. The indictment alleged he falsified information on a daily activity log regarding issuing traffic citations and made a false claim of participation in a driving-while-intoxicated case in March 2009.
Last March, Paulson left the department to join the U.S. Marshals Service.
"When I heard he was indicted, I went ahead and assigned him to desk duty, and as soon as I received word the warrant had been processed, I had him relieved of duty and placed on administrative leave," U.S. Marshal Robert Almonte said.
Almonte said marshal deputies walked Paulson across the street to the El Paso County Jail, where he was booked.
Online records showed that Paulson was released on a $1,000 bond after spending less than an hour in jail.
This week's indictments bring to four the number of former El Paso police officers facing charges in the grants scandal.
Last month, a state grand jury indicted former officers Raul Ramirez and Ana Reza on two counts each of tampering with a government document with intent to defraud.
A spokeswoman for the district attorney's office said that prosecutors will be presenting more cases to the grand jury.
Late last summer the El Paso Times broke the story that an investigation had been opened into overtime pay irregularities regarding STEP grants. The inquiry later expanded to other police grants.
Police Department spokes-man Officer Javier Sambrano said that 18 officers, including two men who retired, have left the department in relation to the inquiry into the grants. The 18 do not include officers such as Paulson and Ramirez who left the department before the start of the investigation.
One of the retirees was Lt. Alfred Lowe, who was with the department for 30 years and was the head of the Crimes Against Persons Unit that investigates murders, armed robberies and other major cases.
Lowe was under investigation about overtime pay linked to a grant for anti-gang work. He was paid more than $76,000 in overtime in fiscal 2011, or four times as much as he earned in overtime the previous year, according to city documents. He has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
Wilson said that auditors reviewed all of the Police Department's grants and that problems were found in about four of about 34 grants. She said measures have been implemented to prevent similar problems in the future.
"As an organization, we have zero tolerance for that," Wilson said.
Wilson said that the total amount of grant money that might have been misused is still being tallied.
Last year, the city of Fort Worth approved paying back $231,000 to the Texas Department of Transportation after a similar grant-pay scandal that led to six officers being fired and at least three officers indicted on criminal charges.
El Paso Mayor John Cook said he hoped the indictments would not reflect badly on the majority of the more than 1,000 members of the police force.
"I always say people are innocent until proven guilty, and we have to find out what was done wrong and by whom," Cook said in a telephone call from Los Angeles after he attended a meeting of border mayors in Tijuana, Mexico.
"The majority of our police officers have not been accused, and as the police chief said, 'We will hold all our officers to the highest standard.' "
Daniel Borunda may be reached at [email protected]; 546-6102.
Listed are El Paso police officers who resigned or retired after an investigation into discrepancies regarding overtime pay funded through grants. Shown are names and number of years with the department.
Lt. Alfred Lowe.* 30Detective Jose Ruiz Jr. 17Detective Ana Reza* 17Sgt. Luis Ortiz 16Officer Jorge Arellano 11Officer Michael Arzaga 12Officer Enrique Davila* 20Officer Kenny Huynh 17Officer Scott McFarland 13Officer Luis Acosta** 17Officer Oscar Candelaria 13Officer Gabriel Castaneda 4Officer Francisco Chavez 13Officer David Jimenez 13Detective Charles Romo 7Officer Ed Nicolas 18Officer Ed Tarin 14Officer Denby Pedregon 4
Source: El Paso Police Department. *Retired. **Indicted on state charges of tampering with government records.
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