(Due to technical problems during editing, this post was not able to be posted until today, Tuesday 2014-11-18. It was written in its entirety before the sentencing, and the original text has remained unedited since the night of Sunday 2014-11-16.)
This will be one of the more difficult posts to write for this blog. But it needs to be written. For the new people, it’s honestly quite rare I feel comfortable putting in a good word for a good cop. And this post, not surprisingly, is going to be about one of those cops I had a reason to say something good thing about, at one time.
If you haven’t read my post Nightmare on Shepherd Drive from 2010 November (just a little over four years ago to the day!), you may want to go back and take a look at it. In that post I quote then-Precinct 6 Constable Victor Trevino where he rips the cops running a questionable speed trap on North Shepherd Drive and North Durham Drive. Some months later, Constable Trevino gets indicted on four criminal counts: two counts of tampering with a governmental record, one count of abuse of official capacity, and one count of misappropriation of fiduciary property. It was this last count that he was being tried on until a few days ago when he changed his plea to guilty and shortly thereafter, he resigned as constable. Basically, you can stick a fork in Mr. Trevino’s law enforcement career because it’s done.
If you think I now feel like a bit of an ass for having said something good about him, you’d be at least partially right. I take a pretty dim view of those who divert money from a charitable cause for their own ends. In this regard Mr. Trevino is no better than the likes of the WordCamp Houston 2010 organizers who I have already written about at length. The difference here is, that was attempted theft, and Mr. Trevino’s actions are closer to an actual theft (“misappropriation” is really just a nicer and/or legal term for theft when it comes down to it). To say I expect better of those who work in law enforcement is an understatement. While I don’t think the charge to which Mr. Trevino pleaded guilty reflects the entirety of his career, it’s certainly going to be the main thing that many remember him for.
I didn’t know he was going to be accused of these kinds of crimes at the point in time when I wrote my post. And in the specific context where I commend him in my post from 2010, I stand by what I said; I’m not going to retract it now. I really wish some other constables or even the sheriff had spoken up about the speed trap and said the same thing that then-Constable Trevino did.
I drive through there once in a while, and it seems HPD has finally abandoned the speed trap in/near the 700 block of North Shepherd/Durham. There may be another reason for that (which I may address later) but either way, good riddance. So the story, and then-Constable Trevino’s words, may well have had a lasting impact.
Regarding Mr. Trevino’s criminal case, I may make another post in about a week after he’s sentenced, I may not. It depends on how I feel. I will say I am glad I felt well enough to write this post today (Saturday); it would have hit the wire earlier had I not been ill.