Post by Critique on Feb 2, 2007 22:53:58 GMT -5
February 02, 2007
By Molly Bloom
HAYS COUNTY, TEXAS – A judge today found former Hays County Sheriff’s deputy John Pastrano guilty of groping a Texas State student following a traffic stop almost three years ago.
Pastrano, who was fired after the incident, still faces a civil trial stemming from the matter, in which Hays County is also a party. The former deputy, who during his 20 months with the department faced complaints including public drunkenness, threatening behavior toward women and lying, was arrested in September 2004 and charged with improper sexual activity with a person in custody.
Pastrano appeared in court today but did not testify during his bench trial, in which a defendant does not appear before a jury. State District Judge Charles Ramsay issued the guilty ruling without comment. Pastrano will remain free on bond until sentencing in March. He could get up to two years in jail and a maximum fine of $10,000.
According to court documents, Pastrano threatened to have 20-year-old Holly Cagle kicked out of school if she refused to do as he said. His arrest affidavit alleges Pastrano made Cagle sit in the back seat of his patrol car, and he groped her.
Pastrano has not disputed that the sexual contact took place. In his defense, his attorneys argued that Pastrano’s actions didn’t constitute the crime with which he was charged.
“I think it’s a very interesting legal issue,” said Pastrano’s lawyer, Joe Turner, after the trial. Pastrano had also been charged with official oppression, a misdemeanor charge that was later dropped.
Pastrano was fired from the sheriff’s office soon after his arrest. But in the suit she filed last year in federal district court, Cagle says he should have been out of uniform and off the road months before.
Hays County sheriff’s records requested by the American-Statesman under the Texas Public Information Act document accusations of misbehavior:
•In early 2004, San Marcos police officers intervened after Pastrano got into a drunken shoving match with an ex-girlfriend’s friend at a party. Pastrano was “rude, demanding, intoxicated and not telling the truth” and would have been thrown in jail if he weren’t a deputy, San Marcos police officers told Pastrano’s supervisor, according to a June 16, 2004, memo from Sgt. M. Cumberland.
•Several people at that party, including Pastrano’s ex-girlfriend, told police that Pastrano had been following his ex-girlfriend and would not leave her alone, according to the memo.
•In April 2004, Pastrano, while off duty, was stopped by Harris County sheriff’s officers for getting into a late-night, drunken argument on the street with a girlfriend, according to a June 17, 2004, note from Cumberland included in Pastrano’s personnel file.
•Pastrano’s behavior violated numerous agency policies, any one of which would have been grounds for dismissal, according an internal memo Cumberland wrote. But it wasn’t until Cagle came forward that Pastrano, who is the son of Mustang Ridge Police Chief and former Kyle City Council Member Chevo Pastrano Sr., was fired.
“When you look at all the separate incidents combined,” Cumberland wrote in a memo, “it is apparent that the situation has got to the point where I believe more permanent action must be taken.”
During Cagle’s September 2004 traffic stop, for which she was not cited, Pastrano turned off his audio and video recorders and had her sit in his patrol car’s back seat, according to his arrest affidavit.
“How do I know you don’t have something hidden in your bra and panties?” Pastrano asked Cagle, a Texas State student, according to the affidavit, which says he then told her to hold her clothes away from her body, shined his flashlight on her exposed breasts and groin, and ran his hands all over her body.
Reports of misbehavior continued after Pastrano’s termination for the incident. In 2004 and 2005, he beat his girlfriend and threatened to kill her if she tried to leave him, according to a motion filed in criminal court by assistant district attorney Wesley Mau that describes how Pastrano broke her fingers, tried to strangle her and hit and kicked her. The woman has requested an order of protection against him.
Pastrano, now 27, has also worked for the Caldwell County sheriff’s office and the Luling Police Department.
Pastrano faces a third trial from a San Marcos man who filed a federal suit against Pastrano and former Sheriff Don Montague. Rhett Posey, 38, alleges that Pastrano in May 2003 intentionally broke his finger while Posey lay handcuffed in the back of a patrol car. The act was punishment for Posey spitting tobacco on the floor, according to the suit.
www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/02/02/2pastrano.html