Saturday, December 27, 2008
By Erin Quinn
Tribune-Herald staff writer
A former police officer has filed a lawsuit against the city of Hubbard claiming the police chief forced him to violate state law by working under a quota of issuing at least 100 tickets per month.
Former police officer Jason Doss said regardless of how much over the speed limit a resident of Hubbard was driving, Chief Tomas Echartea told him to “shake their hand and tell them to have a nice day.”
In response to the allegations, Echartea said “that’s not something we do,” but directed all requests for comment to the city’s attorney in the matter, Waco-based Roy L. Barrett. Barrett filed a general denial of the allegations with the county.
“The city of Hubbard denies the allegations of wrongdoing made by Mr. Doss and plans to vigorously defend this lawsuit,” Barrett said. He declined further comment.
According to a petition filed at the Hill County courthouse by Doss’ Boerne-based attorney, Doss was “disciplined and forced to resign after reporting to the proper authorities that he was instructed to comply with a ticket quota.”
Doss, 27, said he was told of the quota on his first day by Echartea and police Sgt. John Bailes.
Doss said he had been hired as a probationary employee so, even though he knew it was illegal, he followed orders. At the time, he was the department’s only officer, other than Echartea, Bailes and City Manager Alfredo Saldana, who is a reserve officer.
The lawsuit alleges that during the time he was ignoring all other city patrolling and concentrating solely on meeting the ticket quota, Doss was “praised for his efforts and given a pay raise.”
When Doss’ probation expired, and he concentrated on city policing rather than meeting the quota, the lawsuit alleges he was harassed and discriminated against by Echartea and Saldana.
The lawsuit alleges Doss was yelled at, threatened and that his family was denied police protection “during a potentially dangerous encounter.”
He also was made to work “unreasonable hours,” work while he was sick and allowed only one uniform shirt, even though he worked nightly. His portable radio and Taser were also taken away from him, the lawsuit alleges.
“They just started aggressively trying to get rid of me,” Doss said. “The discrimination was terrible. They didn’t want to fire me because they knew what I was saying was true.”
Doss said Echartea focused the department’s efforts on writing traffic citations to out-of-towners so that he didn’t have to worry about his reputation in the community.
“He lets the city get away with murder on traffic,” Doss said.
Doss reported the information of the quota to Saldana, who “sided” with Echartea, the lawsuit states.
“It became clear that, not only was Mr. Doss’ current employment in question, but that the officials of the city were putting his life and his future in jeopardy,” the lawsuit states.
He resigned and has since received a job with a different police department, but declined to say where.
When contacted at his Waco office, Barrett said, “It might be interesting to inquire whether Mr. Doss has a history of litigation against a prior employer.”
When asked to comment further, Barrett declined.
According to a December 2007 article in the San Antonio Express-News, Doss filed suit against his employer at the time, the Llano County Sheriff’s Office, after he worked a traffic wreck involving an intoxicated off-duty police officer.
He was told by the county’s sheriff, he said, to ignore the smell of alcohol because the driver was a “fellow officer,” the article states.
Doss refused to leave the fact that he smelled alcohol on the driver’s breath out of his report and was fired 12 days after the crash, the article states.
Doss said he received a settlement as a result of the suit.
He started with the Hubbard Police Department in October 2007.
Doss said he no longer has faith in what he calls “the system.”
“I’ve lost all hope,” he said. “There’s no hope for any of this. It’s a disaster. There’s no one watching the store, no checks and balances, no accountability.”
equinn@wacotrib.com
757-5748
Comments
By Darla
Jan 4, 2009 10:01 PM | Link to this
Oh and another thing Sgt. Bailes was not fired from Hubbard PD once before, he " RESIGNED in GOOD STANDING" and I was so glad he did because who would have wanted to work under the FORMER chief he had at that time. Yea former chief had real good standards and morals he was teaching his officers, Uh? So yes once again lets get your facts straight before running your mouth. At least the chief now is honest and sincere and knows how to treat the people in his community.
By Darla
Jan 4, 2009 9:27 PM | Link to this
Lets get it straight first of all "One of the Police Sargents In HUbbard" come on there's only one Sargent so I can't be " one of thier wives" and as far as being on his last leg in Mexia WRONG!!!!! Chief in Mexia was begging him to stay. And as far as his Corporal thats not true either. They got along fine and she even tried to talk Sgt. Bailes into staying with Mexia PD. So like Lucy says why not get the facts straight before you start running your mouth. People that don't have the slightest clue get on my nerves. And as far as a choke hold on a small child here in Hubbard come on we all know who your talking about and he's got e areal good reputation uh? He tried to lie on me and say I did something I did not do and then when he realized I had about 10 witnesses that seen the whole thing he retracted his story and said it was a miscommunication. So yea lets really take that person into consideration and his word. Don't think his word is to believeable here in Hubbard. But as far as Doss, come on can't you people see what he's doing. He's going from Dept. to Dept. makeing up lies and fileing lawsuits. And man don't even get me started on the FORMER chief here, lets see I wonder how much money he actually ended up stealing from the City of Hubbard and why he's not doing time for it I have no clue. Shouldn't that be a Federal crime? Yea I think so. And a little bias maybe but I also know the truth. The City of Hubbard is alot better with Chief Echartea and Sgt. Bailes and Officer Sam and Officer Ernest around. Doss didn't have the slightest clue of what to do on a traffic stop as simple as a mother having her baby in her lap breast feeding while the husband was driving. Lets see is there an exception to the law when a mother needs to breast feed. No you pull over stop the car and feed the baby put the baby back in the car seat and then you proceed with driving. Man what a genious. So lets get our facts straight before we start running our mouths and Mexia PD, Dallas Pd and any others need to be left out of this. Mexia was lucky to have Sgt. Bailes and they will tell you that. So lets keep our mouths shut or prove what your saying because you open yourselves up to a lawsuit if you can't prove what your running your mouth about. THANK YOU and HAVE A GOOD DAY!!!!!!
By Lucy
Jan 4, 2009 9:04 PM | Link to this
David,
Fact: Echartea was offered the opportunity to resign and chose not to! Get your facts straight before barking. You need to read the newspaper, that is, Fairfield Recorder.
By Mikey
Jan 2, 2009 1:26 AM | Link to this
Isn't Darla one of the Police Sergeants Wives? Hello a little bit biased!
Thank You
By Bill
Jan 1, 2009 5:50 AM | Link to this
By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News
Alfredo Saldana, the Dallas police deputy chief who probably would have faced demotion or termination after an investigation found he drew city pay while also working off-duty jobs, is leaving the department.
By Bill
Jan 1, 2009 5:40 AM | Link to this
LEAD: A police officer working undercover in a drug investigation watched a group of men rape a woman but did not interfere because he did not want to reveal his identity, according to newspaper reports.
A police officer working undercover in a drug investigation watched a group of men rape a woman but did not interfere because he did not want to reveal his identity, according to newspaper reports.
The officer, Tomas Echartea, told reporters he pretended to be sick to avoid participating in the assault by the men he was investigating. The officer is on the police force in the rural town of Groesbeck and was working on an undercover drug investigation for the police in the Dallas suburb of University Park.
''You don't want to ruin your credibility,'' Officer Echartea told The Dallas Morning News. ''If it had been a life-threatening situation, I'd have blown my cover. I'd have had to. You just can't let someone be killed.''
The Dallas police said they were unaware of the incident but would investigate to find the woman, who they believe works as a prostitute, to determine if she wanted to press charges against the men. Mr. Echartea's account had also appeared in The Waco Tribune-Herald. 'Had Some Obligation'
Detectives will also ask Mr. Echartea to give them a full account, said Ray Hawkins, the Dallas Deputy Police Chief.
''I think he had some obligation as one human being to another to help her as best he could,'' Chief Hawkins said. ''All women, even prostitutes, have a right not to be raped.''
Officer Echartea said the incident occurred in south Dallas in June while he was working on a two-month investigation. The operation ended with the arrests of four University Park employees on charges of selling drugs.
In Groesbeck, a small town about 60 miles south of Dallas, Police Chief Chuck Walker defended Officer Echartea's actions, saying he could not have intervened without risking his life and the investigation.
''He can't put himself in a life-threatening situation,'' Chief Walker said. ''If it were a life-threatening situation, his cover would have been immaterial then.''
By proud texan
Dec 31, 2008 11:30 PM | Link to this
hubbard , wow what a place! Somebody should check on the
police chief and the city managers background. I did , the foxes
or watching the hen house. Before you make up your mind check
it out your self. TALK ABOUT A DREAM TEAM get the names then
check in dallas waco and other towns they have been in.
cant buy that about doss.
By Darla
Dec 31, 2008 2:35 AM | Link to this
Sorry guys looks like my comment was posted twice. Didn't think it was even posted when I hit the post button it told me there was an error and to try again later. So I wrote another comment but with different things to say so I guess that will show up also. Although it gave me the error when I hit the post button. Oh well at least I got everything I wanted to say on here.
By Darla
Dec 31, 2008 2:31 AM | Link to this
Before all of you start high fiveing Doss maybe you need to get the facts right. I am a resident of Hubbard and I can tell you that as far as Doss being told to shake the locals hands and tell them to have a nice day and ticket only the out of towners, that is not at all true. I have been written TWO speeding tickets in Hubbard so I guess that kind of throws that out the window, uh? And as far as the truck driver who claims 4 of them were giving a ticket in the exact same spot by the same officer well I guess you need to slow down and do the speed limit and I guess he was doing his job, uh? I have been ran off the road, rear ended and my van totaled out by truck drivers who are going so fast they don't have time to slow down. It was pouring down rain and I was coming in on Hwy 31 and a truck driver was going so fast he pushed me into the other lane almost caused me to hit the car in the other lane ran him into the shoulder. I called ahead and had them pull him over. However he did not get a ticket he got a warning. Um imagine that. The Chief and Sgt. in this town are very honest and very respectable law enforcement officers.Unlike Doss who has made a habit of this. As I recall he did this very same thing to the last Police Dept. he worked for. Come on now if you can't make a living being a police officer find a different carreer don't go from Dept. to Dept. filing lwasuits on them and makeing things up. Hubbard couldn't ask for anyone better. Doss did them a favor by resigning. The residents of this town had no respect for him and made fun of him. He had to call the Sgt. on just about every traffic stop he made and every call he was called out on b/c he had no clue what to do. And as far as the so called horrible hours they made him work well he knew when they hired him it was just the 3 of them and Alfredo when needed but he took the job anyways. And come on how many of you have ever gone to work sick? I know have plenty of times. Thats life get over it. Poor baby lets cry about it. I could go on and on but you know whats the point, people out there are going to belive what they want to believe b/c most people hate the police. Of course it's usually b/c they have been in trouble by them, but in all reality if people wouldn't do the things they do to get in trouble the police wouldn't have to bother them. Now would they? I know I am very proud to Have Chief Echartea and Sgt. Bailes in Hubbard, Tx. alot of things have changed for the better since they have been here. Oh and by the way he declines to say what Police Dept. he is working for, well we all know he works For Coolidge Police Dept. and they better watch out their next. Not all Police are corrupt. Yes there are a few out there that are but for the most they are honest and sincere and are there to protect and serve just like their suppose to.
By Tim
Dec 30, 2008 12:28 AM | Link to this
As a student of criminal justice at the Beto College of Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University, I can tell you this is not the only place this happens. Corruption is a common place among police systems across the US and the world. In a very small department like Hubbard, one corrupted person is the effects the whole department. Officer Doss should be applauded for his actions in protecting the justice system. I think the real story here should be the investigation of the staff in Hubbard from the City Manager on down. If you look him up "Alfredo Saldana" you will find that a shady past follows him everywhere i.e. Dallas Police Dept.
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