Grand jury issues report critical of Brownsville Police Department in shooting death

A state grand jury has issued a scathing report against the Brownsville Police Department, despite no-billing several Brownsville police officers involved in a November 2008 armed standoff that left a mentally unstable man dead.

In a Dec. 8, three-page report issued by the special grand jury to presiding Judge Leonel Alejandro of the 357th state District Court, the grand jury says the department’s dispatch center relayed "erroneous information based on assumption rather than fact. Dispatch then disseminated this mistaken information to the police officers on the scene."

The erroneous information ultimately led to the death of Ricardo Moreno, 60, a Brownsville man shot six times by police at his residence on East Van Buren Street after he lunged at officers and stabbed one of them with a kitchen knife, police said.

The report urges the police department to rewrite its policies on dispatcher qualifications, training and methods, to prevent further errors, and recommends that the dispatcher involved, Ida Villarreal, be fired "for her contribution to this incident."

The special grand jury investigated the shooting death of Ricardo Moreno for six months, and on Dec. 8 declined to indict the officers, said Charles E. Mattingly Jr., chief first assistant attorney for the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office.

The officers could have faced charges ranging from assault to murder.

Although the grand jury declined to indict the officers, it did ask Judge Alejandro to make the report public. The Brownsville Herald has obtained a copy of the report under the Texas Open Records Act and is awaiting additional public records on the incident.

The grand jury also found that the police department spent little time on the standoff, and that the entire incident "transpired over merely a few hours."

"Rather than de-escalate the situation, we find they continued to escalate it," the report states.

The report says the department failed to seek relief or aid from other agencies to assist its tiring officers and failed to thoroughly interview witnesses at the scene. In addition, the grand jury found that communications with the "subject were minimal, inadequate and ineffective."

Police officers shot Moreno six times after repeated attempts to restrain him.

Police Chief Carlos Garcia has said his officers exercised discipline and restraint during the incident by incrementally escalating the use of force.

However, the grand jury reports says that, had the police officers used a taser gun, it might have resulted in a "successful arrest, rather than a death."

The department does have taser guns and so does not utilize them, according to the report.

Once the officers suspected Moreno might be mentally unstable, they failed to use a tactic or different approach to deal with him, the report states.

In addition to recommending termination of the police dispatcher involved, the grand jury issued other recommendations to the department, including implementation of de-escalation and relief policies; requiring annual training for all officers, especially supervisors, patrol officer and negotiators; and that qualifications and training be required for dispatchers.

LAWSUIT PENDING

Police Chief Garcia on Tuesday declined to comment on the grand jury report, but issued a prepared statement.

"Because of pending civil litigation, we are limited in commenting on the grand jury’s report," he said in the statement. "While we respect the role of the grand jury and will give the report due consideration, these are matters which must be addressed in the context of civil litigation."

Moreno’s family in December 2008 filed a federal lawsuit against the Brownsville Police Department, maintaining that Moreno’s death was "caused by negligence or use of excessive force."

Named as defendants in the family’s lawsuit are the city of Brownsville, the police chief and the city’s fire and EMS departments. The lawsuit remains active.

Charles V. Willette Jr., a lawyer representing the city in the federal civil lawsuit, could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.

Lawyer Javier Villarreal, who represents Moreno’s family, said Moreno was mentally unstable and was only trying to protect his home because he thought the police were intruders trying to break in.

"The person they killed was a peaceful, elderly man that lived by himself," Villarreal said Tuesday.

The facts in the case will show that Brownsville police used excessive force when going to Moreno’s home, Villarreal said, and the grand jury report backs up what has been alleged all along.

"They go to the wrong house and they basically break in, and then they call the SWAT team for a hostage situation and there’s no hostage – there’s a man sitting on the couch. They kill the ‘hostage’ and there’s no gunman. It turns out to be this old guy who doesn’t match the description" of the person they were looking for, Villarreal said.

After reviewing the grand jury report, he said, he was surprised the officers were no billed.

Officers initially were looking for a stabbing suspect who was listed as living at 1703 East Van Buren, police said. After the suspect wasn’t found at the residence, dispatch informed the officers of a call that claimed the suspect had entered the residence at 1634 East Van Buren.

Before Moreno was shot, police used a crisis negotiator, pepper spray, four canisters of tear gas and seven non-lethal rounds in failed attempts to control him.

The shooting death also was investigated by the Texas Department of Public Safety and the FBI to determine if Moreno’s civil rights were violated, said FBI spokesman Jorge Cisneros.

The investigation showed that Moreno "posed a threat to the officers" and his civil rights had not been violated, Cisneros said.

This is the second time in the past six years that a state grand jury has declined to indictment a law enforcement officer, but has released a report regarding the department’s operation.

In 2003, a grand jury declined to indict former Cameron County Sheriff Conrado Cantu, but in a report said he allowed criminal wrongdoing to fester and exposed the county to civil liability.

Note: A link to view the state grand jury report is available under the related multimedia category adjacent to this story.

You can also click or cut and paste the following link:http://video.onset.freedom.com/brownsville/kv337a-policereport.pdf