ANOTHER FEDERAL LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST GARZA, GRACIA

 Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Barely five months into his four-year term, yet a second federal lawsuit alleging that Cameron County Sheriff Eric Garza and his Chief Deputy Robert Gracia violated the First Amendment rights of a captain in retaliation for his support of his political rival has been filed in federal court.

Captain Javier Reyna, brother of former chief deputy Gustavo Reyna, filed the lawsuit in federal court Friday charging that as a result of his political support of former sheriff Omar Lucio, he had been subjected to ridicule and humiliated publicly by Garza and Gracia on numerous occasions.

He claims that he has been subject to "deprivation, under color of state law, of rights, privileges and immunities secured by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. This claim arises from the action of defendant...Garza to retaliate against Capt. Reyna for supporting (his) opponent, Lucio, in the recent election for sheriff..."

Among some of the retaliatory acts, Reyna claims that Garza and Gracia are guilty of:

a. stripping him of all supervisory duties and subordinates and only assigning him to
personally transport prisoners;
b. taking his office and unmarked take-home fleet unit;
c. only assigning him to personally transport out of town prisoners that require multi-day trips to complete; and
d. attempting to fabricate a criminal case to illegally arrest (him) 

The first federal lawsuit was filed by Sgt. Rodrigo Almanza, who says that Garza – and Gracia – also retaliated against him and violated his constitutional First Amendment rights when they came into office and that Gracia, before he was even a county employee and a certified peace officer, issued orders meant to humiliate him and other acts attempting to pressure him to quit his job.

Alamanza filed his lawsuit April 9 and charges that Garza and Gracia subjected him to humiliation and ridicule for supporting Lucio, in the election for sheriff.

His lawsuit claims that among these actions are included:

a. transferring him to the Transport Division from the prestigious Criminal Investigations Division, where he handled major crimes and also served as liaison to the CCSO’s counterpart in the Republic of Mexico;

b. stripping him of all subordinates and supervisory duties

c. assigning him to shift schedules and working conditions not given to other CCSO supervisors;

d. having him report to a person not certified as a peace officer; and

e. requiring him to perform menial and pointless tasks like distributing inmate meal carts and physically manning a perfectly operational gate during the "lethal" freezing weather.

The Almanza and Reyna lawsuits were both filed by attorney David Willis, who declined to comment on either case. Attempts to reach Reyna were unsuccessful.

This lawsuit is the flip side of a lawsuit filed December 30 against the former sheriff and his officers by former jailer Jose Calvillo for retaliating against him for supporting Garza through contacts with Gracia.

Almanza's lawsuit asked that the court give him and injunctive relief that requires Garza and Gracia to assign him to a position that exercises supervisory authority, with all of the customary benefits and privileges customarily granted to supervisors of the CCSO, and prohibiting them from subsequently reassigning him from there based on his protected activity of supporting Omar Lucio’s political campaign. 

The  Reyna lawsuit mirrors Almanza's and asserts that Reyna has been with the Cameron County sheriff’s office for approximately 28 years and an administrator for the last 16 as Operations and Critical Incident Commander, supervised the Patrol Division, the Criminal Investigations Division, Narcotics Investigations, the Civil Process Division, the Communications Division, Support Staff, and Jail Operations.

Even before Garza was sworn in, Reyna asserts that Garza he named Gracia as his Chief Deputy despite the fact that (he) was not a peace officer certified by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement and that on December 30, 2020, Gracia issued a memorandum ordering all deputies of a certain shift, and those not scheduled to work on January 1, 2021, to attend swearing in ceremonies at particular times and to fill out employment packets for continued employment with the sheriff's department.

Reyna claims in his lawsuit that Gracia, under the direction of Sheriff Garza, summoned Reyna to his office and:

a. Told Reyna that he was no longer assigned an unmarked, take-home fleet unit and ordered him to give him the keys for subsequent use by Sheriff Garza;

b. Questioned Reyna whether he knew who had asked the County’s Human Resources division whether he, Chief Deputy Gracia, was a certified peace office or even a County employee; and

c. Told Reyna that any employee who interfered with what he and Sheriff Garza were trying to do “would be met with everything they had.”

In this meeting, Chief Deputy Gracia confirmed to Reyna that at that time he had not taken

an oath of office nor was he a certified peace officer.

On January 6, 2021, Sheriff Garza ordered (him) to vacate his office and was relocated to a much smaller one in the rear of the Training Division area. That same day, (he) was ordered to terminate his off-duty employment security contract with Space X, causing him to lose significant off-duty pay. In this conversation, Garza allegedly told Reyna that “whatever Chief Deputy Gracia says, you can take it as if it directly coming from me.”

A day later, he asserts that he was assigned to oversee the Civil Process Division and four days later he was relieved of his supervisory duties there leaving him with no supervisory duties whatsoever or any subordinates. Reyna claims that a sheriff department employee told him that Garza said he was a

“veneno” (a poison) and that “we have [Cpt. Reyna] out of here, he has no authority, he will be doing shitty jobs, driving shitty cars from now on.” 

This same employee also confided to Reyna that Garza attempted to coerce CCSO range master, Lt. Carlos del Bosque, into stating that Reyna’s qualifications records were falsified. The falsification of firearm qualification records could constitute a violation of law. 

Garza's efforts to illegally arrest Reyna failed when the range master overcame the efforts of coercion and Border Patrol agents who witnesses his qualification were interviewed and unequivocally exonerated him.

Reyna's lawsuit claims that Garza attempted to fabricate a second case against him by alleging that

he had failed to attend certain TCOLE training courses. Again, an investigation into Garza’ baseless allegation unequivocally exonerated him, Reyna claims.

Then, on January 21, 2021, Reyna notified Garza that he was ready, willing, and able to perform any supervisory role available and Garza instructed him to wait for an email containing an assignment. For weeks, Reyna sat in his office with absolutely nothing to do.

Reyna's lawsuit alleges that Garza and Gracia then, on March 9, 2021, – through subordinate Lt. Huerta – conveyed an order instructing Reyna to transport an out-of-town prisoner and wear a uniform. Supervisors of the CCSO are normally assigned late model fleet units marked with “Supervisor.” In late March of 2021, after Gracia was finally certified as a peace officer, Reyna was assigned a unit substantially older unit without the “Supervisor” marking.

Since March of 2021, deputies and other subordinates conveyed orders instructing him to personally conduct long-distance prisoner transports and report to a subordinate. The lawsuit claims it unheard of to have a captain of the CCSO personally conducting prisoner transports. He states that he was sent to pick up prisoners in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and even Brownfield, Texas, near the border with New

Mexico.

There are only three (3) captains in the department and Reyna claims that he has been excluded from all

supervisor meetings, all supervisor trainings, and has had his access to the Law Enforcement Reporting Management System revoked. 

"Cpt. Reyna is not performing one function of a captain of the CCSO,..and the complete stripping of professional responsibilities and his physical banishment from CCSO, in both its physical and electronic form, has caused Cpt. Reyna to believe that his reassignment was not done to meet the operations needs of the Sheriff’s Office, but rather to professionally humiliate him to the point that he would resign."

Reyna claims that as a direct and proximate result of his reassignment, he has suffered damages in the form of:

a. lost wages and benefits;

b. loss of reputation;

c. loss of desired working conditions;

d. loss of the ability to exercise supervisory authority; and the attendant infliction of mental and physical pain, suffering, anguish, humiliation, and distress in connection that as a captain he has endured with being assigned to personally transport out-of-town prisoners.

Reyna also requests that the court grant a permanent injunction against Garza and that he be returned the benefits and privileges granted to supervisors of the Sheriff’s Office, prohibit Garza from subsequently reassigning him from there based on his protected activity of supporting former Sheriff Lucio’s political campaign.