Texas Sheriff Greg Capers is facing accusations that his office neglected basic police work. Francisco Oropeza evaded hundreds of officers after allegedly killing five neighbors when they complained that his late-night shooting was keeping their baby awake. The sheriff said his deputies arrived in 11 minutes, but Oropeza was gone. However, an Associated Press investigation led the sheriff’s office to disclose that deputies took nearly four times as long as Capers initially said to arrive at the mass shooting. AP reported finding years of complaints about corruption and dysfunction that were previously unknown outside the piney woods of San Jacinto County, showing the difficulty in holding powerful law enforcement officials accountable in isolated areas with little outside oversight. Beyond neglecting basic duties, former deputies said Capers’ office pursued asset seizures that boosted its $3.5 million budget. Chief Deputy Tim Kean said the sheriff’s office had warrants for the seizures. He wasn’t aware of anything being broken or lost, noting that the office keeps a careful inventory of property. Former deputies said questionable seizures were common, and Capers conceded in a deposition to paying one person $2,815 for missing property, including diamond earrings.
The lack of attention to police work was one of the major complaints against Capers. Last year, deputies did not arrest Oropeza after he was reported for domestic violence and never contacted federal authorities to check his immigration status, although he was in the U.S. illegally. Capers’ department appeared to have done little to investigate another family’s call to 911 reporting a different man’s backyard gunfire that nearly struck their young daughter. The county paid $240,000 in 2020 to settle a whistleblower’s lawsuit accusing Capers of wide-ranging misconduct. Last year, county leaders hired a police consulting firm to examine the sheriff’s office but disregarded its recommendation to have the Texas Rangers’ public corruption squad investigate. County commissioners were concerned enough about staff turnover that they paid the LION Institute, the police consulting firm, nearly $50,000 to review the sheriff’s office and suggest improvements. The group’s report lays out evidence that the sheriff’s staff falsified training records and failed to pursue 4,000 reported crimes over the years, including 106 alleged sexual assaults. The report said Capers dismissed concerns about an affair between a deputy and an informant and brushed aside reports that the same deputy leaked investigative information to suspects. Kean denied deputies neglected investigations, blaming an “admin screw-up” in the computer system and said some victims couldn’t identify their attackers.
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