Investigative stories across Texas that uncovered hidden facts and held officials accountable.

San Antonio police cut pricey gunshot detection system | San Antonio Express-News

San Antonio police officers have made only four arrests and confiscated seven weapons that can be attributed to an expensive, highly touted gunshot detection system called ShotSpotter. That’s $136,500 per arrest. ShotSpotter’s CEO argues that city leaders are taking too narrow a view of the program and missing its benefits. Story by Vianna Davila

We Sent Alex Jones’ Infowars Supplements To A Lab. Here’s What’s In Them | Buzzfeed

Austin conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ wildly popular suite of Infowars health supplements probably won’t kill you. But extensive tests provided to BuzzFeed News have shown that they’re little more than overpriced and ineffective blends of vitamins and minerals that have been sold in stores for ages. Story by Charlie Warzel

Congressional candidate Roshin Rowjee, challenging Louie Gohmert, holds no medical license, has been disciplined by Texas Medical Board | Tyler Morning Telegraph

Roshin Rowjee, the Lufkin man who plans to challenge incumbent Congressman Louie Gohmert in the March 2018 GOP primary, is presenting himself as a medical doctor. But the Tyler Morning Telegraph has confirmed that Rowjee has never been licensed to practice medicine, has been disciplined by the Texas Medical Board for offering medical advice over the internet, and continues to operate a website offering medical advice.

“I knew this was going to come up in due time, but that is garbage,” said Rowjee, who nevertheless confirmed each of the specific allegations. “It’s absolute garbage.” Story by Jamie Clyde

City records raise doubts about repairs, inspections of Austin garage after car plummets off seventh floor | Austin American-Statesman

At first glance, the incident appeared to be a freak accident. But it was the second time in less than a year that a vehicle drove through steel cables and over the side of the Littlefield Garage. A review of code enforcement documents show that after the first incident, officials only looked at the portion of the garage’s ninth floor where that driver went overboard, took a certified engineer’s word as proof the repairs had been made and then closed the case. Story by Philip Jankowski

Meet the expert who helps Texas cops justify extreme behavior | The Texas Observer

Gilbert Flores’ hands were raised when two Bexar County deputies shot and killed him. A former cop who’s trained thousands of state police officers explains why he thinks that’s OK. Story by Michael Barajas

Did I miss a good story? Contact me or leave a comment below. And don’t forget to check out more watchdog journalism from the great state of Texas.

The post Must reads: Texas watchdog journalism roundup for August 16, 2017 appeared first on John Tedesco.

Lack of sharing, limited resources impede identification of migrant remains | San Antonio Express-News

“Funded by a grant from the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, reporter Aaron Nelsen and photographer Julysa Sosa traveled more than 3,000 miles for three weeks chronicling a caravan of Central American mothers and other family members on a heart-wrenching journey: trying to find out what happened to their loved ones, who disappeared while making the dangerous trek to the United States. But many are denied even the bitter closure of burial because lack of shared DNA databases, international conflicts and shifting immigration policies are preventing the identification of an untold number of remains.” Story by Aaron Nelsen

Two more liquor regulators leaving troubled TABC | The Texas Tribune

“Two fresh departures from the troubled Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission bring to five the number of high-level officials calling it quits since The Texas Tribune began publishing a series of stories about lavish spending, mismanagement and regulatory overreach at TABC.” Story by Jay Root

Dallas police in ‘crisis situation’ fueled by low morale, pension mess, veteran exodus | Dallas Morning News

“Community leaders in Pleasant Grove tell anyone calling 911 to say they saw a gun or a knife — whether they did or not. It’s a tactic Bonnie Mathias learned from a police officer to trigger a quicker response from authorities. And as the Dallas Police Department continues to shrink, the chairwoman of the Texas Organizing Project of Pleasant Grove said her neighborhood is bracing for slower response times. ‘Our officers are spread so thin that response times are just ridiculous.'” Story by Tasha Tsiaperas and Naheed Rajwani

Military still booting troops with service-related mental health disorders for misconduct | San Antonio Express-News

“Greco belongs to the multitudes of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans separated from the military for misconduct while coping with mental health disorders connected to their service. During a recent five-year period, tens of thousands of troops with diagnosed conditions received less than honorable discharges, stripping them of some or all of their medical, housing, education and additional benefits that could ease their re-entry to the civilian realm.” Story by Martin Kuz

Did I miss a good story? Contact me or leave a comment below.

The post Must reads: Texas watchdog journalism roundup for July 9, 2017 appeared first on John Tedesco.

Ticket to the Top | San Antonio Express-News

“How tiny St. Anthony Catholic High School got involved in a questionable recruiting pipeline that included the University of the Incarnate Word, a talent scout and a booster to land star Nigerian basketball player Charles Bassey, one of the top big men in the country.” Story by Adam Zuvanich

Texas Couple exonerated 25 years after being convicted of lurid crimes that never happened | The Intercept

“The couple’s prosecution in 1992 was part of a wave of cases across the country amid an episode of mass hysteria known as the Satanic Panic. Beginning in the 1980s, accusations flew that the childcare industry had been infiltrated by bands of Satanists hell-bent on brainwashing and sexually abusing young children. The Kellers’ exoneration closes a decadeslong chapter of profound injustice for a couple that paid an exceptionally high price for the credulousness of local law enforcement.” Story by Jordan Smith

A question of restraint: Texas police rarely faulted as 289 suspects died in their custody | Austin American-Statesman

“Even when officers violated use-of-force policies – using banned tactics, for example, or failing to promptly summon medical help for an injured prisoner — it was rare for them to be charged with a crime. Over the past decade, it happened just a handful of times, a six-month investigation by the American-Statesman has found. It was equally uncommon for officers to face discipline from their departments, such as suspensions or reprimands.” Story by Tony Plohetski and Andrea Ball

Dannenbaum, target of FBI probe, has controversial history along border | San Antonio Express-News

“Bitter feelings still linger in Brownsville more than a decade after the city’s port paid millions of dollars for a bridge that was never built to Dannenbaum Engineering, the statewide engineering company whose offices the FBI raided in April.” Story by Richard Webner

Did I miss a good story? Contact me or leave a comment below.

The post Must reads: Texas watchdog journalism roundup for June 25, 2017 appeared first on John Tedesco.

Last week, Hidalgo County District Attorney René Guerra asked the Texas Department of Public Safety to temporarily suspend its practice of using airborne snipers to fire at fleeing vehicles. Guerra made the request after DPS trooper Miguel Avila, riding in a helicopter, fired at a pickup truck he thought was carrying a drug shipment. Actually, the truck was full of immigrants suspected of entering the U.S. illegally. Two Guatemalan immigrants were killed.

One of the most difficult and controversial challenges for police officers is chasing a fleeing vehicle. Police are supposed to catch criminals. But a lot can go wrong in a high-speed chase — especially in the deadly cat-and-mouse game DPS troopers play with drug smugglers in Texas border counties.

DPS Director Mike McCraw has asked the FBI to investigate the shooting. But there are already resources available to the public that show why an incident like this near the border was probably bound to happen.

We received data for nearly 5,000 chases that occurred from January 2005 to July 2010. The database was packed with details about every DPS pursuit in Texas, showing factors like how each chase started, how it ended, and how many people were injured or killed.

One thing that jumped out at us was the high number of pursuits in Hidalgo County on the Mexican border. Between 2005 and July 2010, troopers in other Texas counties chased vehicles, on average, about 20 times. In Hidalgo County, DPS troopers chased vehicles about 30 times more often — 656 pursuits. That’s far and away the most in Texas:

You can view and download the raw data here if you want to crunch the numbers yourself.

Brandi and videographer Callie Richmond went for a ride-along with troopers who said the high number of pursuits was easy to explain. Troopers often chase drug smugglers who are growing more brazen. During pursuits, some smugglers throw homemade caltrops made of welded nails on the road to puncture the tires of police cruisers. They drive on caliche roads to kick up dust to blind troopers. And they often drive into the Rio Grande River, where smugglers wait in rafts to recover the bundles of drugs.

For our story, we also found DPS policies allowed troopers to engage in riskier chase tactics than other large Texas police and sheriff’s departments:

Troopers can set up rolling and stationary roadblocks to end a chase, a strategy they used 68 times from 2005 to 2009. Troopers also can shoot out a suspect’s tires if other methods, such as deploying spike strips, fail to stop the pursuit. Troopers fired their guns during chases nearly 90 times over the last five years, with 14 of those incidents occurring during pursuits in urban areas.

The agency had admitted in the past that it didn’t do a very good job training troopers for vehicle pursuits:

In 2007 the department acknowledged it needed to do a better job giving officers hands-on training after crashes involving troopers increased by 30 percent. “We fall short in providing the necessary practical driver training to our officers,” said a February 2007 newsletter published by the department’s public information office. At the time, troopers practiced their driving skills at a parking lot around a football field in Austin.

Use-of-force expert Geoffrey Alpert questioned the wisdom of shooting at vehicles:

Alpert says there’s no good rationale for firing a weapon at a fleeing vehicle. “What if there are passengers in the car?” he asks. “How do they know who else is in the car? How can you use deadly force for a traffic offense?” He says most state highway patrol departments have “very aggressive, loose policies,” perhaps because troopers often operate in sparsely populated communities. Half of all DPS pursuits occurred in rural areas; the other half were in urban areas or a mix of the two.

DPS officials pointed out that troopers often operate in the “middle of nowhere.” And they can call off a chase if troopers believe the situation is veering out of control. But the database showed that rarely happened. Out of the 5,000 chases, only 142, less than 3 percent, were terminated voluntarily by DPS.

This year, my colleague Jason Buch went back to the Rio Grande Valley to write another story about DPS’ efforts to stop smugglers. He found DPS’ presence on the border had grown into a small army and Jason flew with troopers in a DPS helicopter:

The Legislature has provided more than $600 million for border security since 2007, with most of the money given to DPS to target drug and human smugglers. The border operation today represents a small army, with specialized Ranger Reconnaissance Teams, new intelligence centers, patrol boats, helicopters and surveillance cameras watching for traffickers.

Even a high-altitude spy plane soon will be deployed.

It’s a departure from DPS’ traditional roles as highway patrolmen and a support service to local law enforcement agencies.

News organizations have provided a wealth of context that explains the recent controversy involving DPS. Yet the practice of shooting rifles from DPS helicopters was news to San Antonio’s Allan Polunsky, a member of the Public Safety Commission that oversees DPS. Polunsky told the Austin American-Statesman “he was unaware of any prior incidents involving DPS troopers shooting from helicopters in pursuit of fleeing suspects.”

The post Everything you need to know about DPS, police pursuits and why troopers shoot at vehicles appeared first on John Tedesco.

First, some background:

On March 26 — a lazy, Friday afternoon in the newsroom — Josh got a tip that FBI agents were at the city’s “One Stop” center. The tipster said the FBI was carting out files from Fernando De León office, and leading him away in handcuffs.

The One Stop center is a spacious city building that feels more like a trendy art museum than a staid government building. It’s the home of the city’s Planning and Development Services Department. Developers and builders visit the One Stop center to apply for permits to develop land, construct new buildings, and renovate existing structures. De León, an assistant director at Development Services, was one of many employees who reviewed those plans.

I know De León. The last time I saw him was a month or so earlier, when I visited his colleague’s office for a story about the cracked retaining wall at the Hills of Rivermist. In the newsroom, I was walking by Josh’s desk and saw De León’s picture on the computer. “What’s up with Fernando?” I asked. Josh told me about the tip.

I think my exact words at that point were: “Holy shit.”

Related: FBI and police quiz San Antonio official who oversaw land development

I offered to help find out what was going on and called Development Services. A receptionist answered. I asked for De León. He was unavailable. I asked for his boss, Roderick Sanchez. He was unavailable, too. I said I heard there were guys in suits over there and asked what they were doing. She blurted “Oh, my God,” and said she couldn’t talk about it.

I got my stuff and started running out to my car to head to Development Services. Josh caught up with me and said it was too late — the FBI had been there earlier that day and had left. So now we had some catching up to do to find out what had happened. It was about 5 p.m., and we had a few hours to go before deadline.

After more frantic phone calls — thankfully Police Chief William McManus and District Attorney Susan Reed called us back — we were able to write this story for the next day’s edition of the newspaper. It turned out the tip about the city official being arrested was incorrect, but the rest of the information was true:

FBI agents and police detectives Friday questioned an assistant director of the city department that issues permits for real estate development and seized his computer and files as part of a joint investigation.

“We’re looking at a number of improprieties,” Police Chief William McManus said, declining to discuss further details.

Investigators interviewed Fernando De León at police headquarters for several hours, but he was not arrested, McManus said. Calls to De León’s cell phone were not returned Friday evening.

McManus and District Attorney Susan Reed, who was briefed on the investigation, said the criminal probe of the city’s Planning and Development Services Department has lasted for several months. Investigators are examining “irregularities in the permitting process,” Reed said.

On these kinds of stories, it’s important to let authorities do their job, and it’s important to point out to readers that no one has been charged with a crime. At the same time, when authorities bring a city official in for questioning and seize his files, it raises legitimate questions that we have to try to answer. For example, did De León sign off on faulty permits that led to poorly designed real estate developments or buildings? Were permitting fees incorrectly assessed? Those are pertinent issues for San Antonians.

After that story was published, Josh and I started pulling public records about De León, and attempted to talk to anyone who might know something. I put a lot of miles on my car driving around the city and knocking on doors. That effort led to this follow-up story:

Federal authorities subpoenaed records last year at Pape-Dawson Engineers Inc., the largest engineering firm in San Antonio, as part of an investigation of permitting practices at the city’s Planning and Development Services department.

Two sources familiar with the inquiry said Pape-Dawson Engineers is not the target of the investigation. FBI agents appear to be focused on Rapid Permit Services Inc., a small company that Pape-Dawson had hired in the past to file development plans with the city.

Records and interviews show Rapid Permit Services is owned by Rebeca De León Lopez, who is the sister of Fernando De León, an assistant director of land development at the city who was questioned Friday by the FBI.

So we had a few more pieces of the puzzle, which led to more questions. For starters, we wanted to know what projects Rapid Permit Services had handled; how often De León signed off on the firm’s paperwork; whether he suggested to developers that they hire Rapid Permit Services; and who else worked for the firm.

We sent an open records request to the city for documents that might help us answer some of those questions. But the city attorney’s office responded that the documents aren’t public because of an active criminal investigation. So we had to find a way around that roadblock.

We heard that Rapid Permit Services had worked at the Rim, an 800-acre shopping center built in an old limestone quarry on the city’s North Side that boasts a Bass Pro Shop and the Santikos Palladium movie theater. If Rapid Permit Services had worked at the Rim, it would have been a plum job — the Rim had been one of the hottest real estate projects in town.

The developer of the Rim, Thomas Enterprises Inc., is based in Georgia, and owner Stan Thomas was friendly and helpful when I spoke to him on the phone. He confirmed that Rapid Permit Services worked on the project, and he referred me to employees at his company who knew more. They weren’t aware that Rapid Permit Services was tied to any kind of controversy, and didn’t believe they benefited from any favorable treatment.

The city has a website that allows the public to track permits, which turned out to be a useful resource. I checked various addresses at the Rim and found Rapid Permit Services was an applicant for commercial building permits at the Best Buy on La Cantera Parkway. According to the website, De León reviewed and approved plans filed by Rapid Permit Services.

That information helped us write our most recent story:

When developer Stan Thomas began transforming an old limestone quarry into the Rim, an 800-acre shopping center on the far North Side, he said his company needed help navigating San Antonio’s complex permit process.

“I was told I had to use every consultant known to man,” said Thomas, owner of Thomas Enterprises Inc.

One of those consulting firms was a newcomer called Rapid Permit Services Inc. Thomas said the firm lived up to its name — it efficiently shepherded permit applications through the Planning and Development Services Department.

But Thomas said he had no idea at least one of the firm’s owners is related to Fernando De León, a city employee who approved some of the paperwork for the Rim, records show. De León’s sister owns Rapid Permit Services, according to public records.

We still have many unanswered questions. But we know more than we did that hectic Friday afternoon when Josh first got that tip.

The post Firm tied to San Antonio official landed plum job at the Rim shopping center appeared first on John Tedesco.

On Friday, FBI agents and San Antonio white-collar crime detectives showed up at the city’s Planning and Development Services department and seized a computer and files belonging to Fernando De León, an assistant director in charge of issuing land development permits. Authorities later questioned De León for several hours that same day at police headquarters downtown. De León was not arrested and he was released after the interview.

WOAI’s Brian Collister reported in February that San Antonio police were investigating building inspectors in the same city department. The inspectors check residential and commercial structures, and inspect things like electrical systems and plumbing. If the building isn’t up to code, the inspector is supposed to tag the flaw and the owner is supposed to fix it. The city is investigating whether inspectors took money to sign off on work that wasn’t up to city code.

Friday’s development added a new wrinkle to this story — it was the first sign that the FBI is investigating the city department. And De León oversaw land development, not building inspections. His name is tied to hundreds, if not thousands, of development plans that govern things like lot densities of subdivisions and tree preservation requirements. De León held an important position in a city that is grappling with the growing pains of urban sprawl. Here’s the city’s description of his responsibilities:

The Land Development Division is involved with the review and approval process of Master Development Plans (MDPs), Plats, Tree Preservation, Infrastructure, Traffic Impact Analysis (TIAs), and Zoning. The Construction and the Environmental Inspectors assist the Division in the field. The Land Development Division serves as staff to the Planning Commission, Zoning Commission and Board of Adjustments.

District Attorney Susan Reed said investigators are examining “irregularities in the permitting process” that De León oversaw.

I last bumped into De León in February when I was at Development Services covering the retaining wall collapse at the Hills of Rivermist. He’s a friendly, soft-spoken guy.

How did the FBI and San Antonio police team up? It appears they were initially conducting separate investigations of Development Services:

Officials said city and federal investigators “crossed paths” during two separate investigations of the department. The city got involved in October, when the Office of Municipal Integrity received a complaint about the four building inspectors.

When that office determined it was a criminal matter, it turned the case over to the city manager’s office, which in turn handed it over to the Police Department, officials said.

Meanwhile, federal authorities were quietly conducting their own inquiry. …

“We did cross paths,” [Police Chief William] McManus said. “We partnered up.”

The post FBI and police quiz San Antonio official who oversaw land development appeared first on John Tedesco.

The crackly radio chatter of police, firefighters and paramedics doing their jobs has always been a lively soundtrack in the newsroom. But Columnist Scott Stroud explains how the scanner traffic in San Antonio is about to grow quieter:

Related: Fake Steve Jobs misses the real point

Starting today, reporters at the Express-News and other local media outlets will not have access to emergency medical services scanner traffic. This will make their jobs harder because they won’t hear addresses where incidents occur, or the reason an ambulance is needed.

It should alarm you, too. The change inhibits your ability to learn how well the police, fire and emergency medical workers that your tax dollars pay for are performing — whether they’re arriving at crime and accident scenes in time to help people in trouble, for example. It also diminishes your ability to know about emergencies that could threaten your well-being.

City Attorney Michael Bernard, who instigated the change, thinks allowing reporters to hear EMS scanner traffic — as they always have — could lead to violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

The post EMS scanners to fall silent to the public appeared first on John Tedesco.