PERFORMANCE OF BPD COPS A KEYSTONE COMEDY OF ERRORS

 Section 42.092  of the Texas Penal Code states “Cruelty to Livestock Animals” and 42.092 “Cruelty of Non-Livestock Animals” of the Texas Penal Code prohibits a person from intentionally, knowingly or recklessly cruelly treating an animal. Abandoning an animal 

City of Brownasville Municipal Code Sec. 10-1061: "An animal so left shall be deemed abandoned...If the animal is so abandoned, the owner or the person who has been charged with the animal's care, shall be subject to a citation for violation of this section."

Chapter 10, Section 10-91: Running at Large It shall be unlawful for any person owning a dog or other pet animal, other than a cat, to permit such animal to run at large.

Chapter 10, Section 1001: (legal definitions) Owner means any person who has right of property in an animal or who harbors an animal or allows an animal to remain about his premises for a period of three days

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

When two Brownsville Police Department officers showed up at Tim and Yolanda's Speece's home, it seemed like the couple was watching a classic crime movie.

One – Officer Rolando Trujillo – played the "good cop." The other – Efrain Cervantes – played the "bad cop." They were there following a confrontation, bordering on assault,  between Tim and Samantha Nathaly Vargas, who claimed that he had stolen her dog.

What Vargas didn't tell the officers was that Yolanda had found Dobie, a German Shepherd, wandering at large some three months before and had rescued her and brought her to her home. Vargas didn't tell the officers that she had not filed a police report or contacted animal control officer about the missing dog in those three months. The report that was submitted by Vargas was dated April 18, 2022, and not in January, when Yolanda found Dobie.

The Speeces, after searching for the dog's owner for close to three months, had not seen any posters or signs of a missing dog fitting Dobie's description. They made it a point to go to the nearby neighborhoods to see whether anyone knew the owner or claimed her. For nearly three months, no one did until April 18, 2022.

“Cervantes accused me of stealing Dobie right out the gate", she said. “I tried to explain to the officer how I got the dog and that she had been with us for three months, but Cervantes was advocating hard for us to turn over Dobie and even said, ‘lost, stolen, or missing, it is the same thing.'"

Among other things that Vargas told Cervantes – which later proved to be false – was that Dobie was AKC registered, that she was trained to be around elderly people, and Vargas claimed that she paid $250 for the dog. Officer Cervantes took that as face value and never checked her story. All she had as proof was a photo of a German Shepherd, and based on such insufficient proof, believed her and accused them of  being dog thieves. 

Yolanda said Cervantes pressured her to turn over Dobie. She was worried she could be charged and/or arrested for theft. Since her job has a zero-tolerance policy and a no-arrest requirement, she couldn’t afford to lose her job, With her husband, Tim, a cancer patient, it was a risk she couldn't take.

After her husband Tim asked Cervantes about the investment the couple had made in Dobie's care, Cervantes gave them assurances that he would be the "intermediary" (which is against BPD protocol) so that they could be reimbursed for expenses incurred while the dog was in their care. What he didn't tell them – and which they later found out – was that municipal ordinances and state laws protect you when you find a stray dog or cat and no one claims it after a certain amount of time.

Then, after receiving the police report, she noticed that there were discrepancies, including the fact that the report cited an address for Vargas' grandmother Manuela Pilar Vargas at 700 E. Polk, a location that turned out to be an empty lot. It also stated that she had surrendered Dobie over voluntarily, despite the fact that she was placed under duress by his "Bad Cop" performance.   

When Cervantes took Yolanda in the canine unit to hand over the dog, she and Tim didn't know that it would be the last time they ever would see Dobie. 

Part 3 Monday: The BPD Runaround Begins