WOMAN ON QUEST FOR JUSTICE OVER DOG SHE RESCUED

(This story was originally scheduled to be posted Monday, but medical issues prevented the interview from happening. We post it here today. It may be slightly long, but details offer an important message for animal lovers in the city. Get your Kleenex ready.)

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

If a Brownsville resident ever comes upon a wandering stray animal, Yolanda Speece hopes that they won't be subjected to the same treatment she got from the Brownsville Police Department and its administrators, including the Chief of Police.

 Speece found a wandering German Shepherd on January 2022 in front of her workplace near the Cameron County Courthouse in front of witnesses and took it home to shelter it in hopes that she would eventually find the owner. During that stretch of time – 88 days, or about three months – she was unsuccessful in finding the owner despite walking the dog multiple times in the area where she had found her.

Then two Brownsville police officers appeared at her house demanding she hand over "Dobie" because Samantha Nathaly Vargas, who claimed the dog belonged to her grandmother Manuela Pilar Vargas who she said lived at 700 E. Polk, although a private investigator found that the elderly woman lived in El Paso, Texas for the last six years and that the property mentioned in Brownsville is empty.

Based on her experience, she says the Brownsville Police Dept. showed her that they are ignorant of the law and enforce it as they see fit despite their actions, apparently violating people's rights. Specifically, she said that.

* BPD officer Efrain "Sonny" Cervantes violated police protocol and capriciously took the law into his own hands by pressuring her to hand over Dobie despite city ordinances that state that animals at large or abandoned become the property of the finder after harboring the animals for three days and are legally defined as owner from there on.

* Officer Rolando Trujillo – despite being a veteran officer and the first on the scene at her home – allowed Cervantes to ignore the law and became a passive observer, the "good cop."

* The staff of the BPD's Internal Affairs Dept. referred her to Sgt. Cecilia Valdez. when she attempted to file a complaint against Cervantes. When Speece asked how she could go about speaking to her, they had Valdez call her. Speece said she wanted discretion and Valdez agreed to talk to her at 5 a.m. at the PD. That attempt at discretion was in vain because their conversation was adjacent to a group of detectives at the station. She said Valdez  refused to take the report and abused her verbally and escorted her out of the police department. When Speece asked her how to get the body cam footage of the officers, she, in turnn, sent her back to Internal Affairs. Speece said Valdez told her she had no rights and said she did not see that Cervantes had done anything wrong. 

* Det. Rey Ordoñez – who Speece was told she would need to speak with in order to justify a property hearing before municipal court –  said she had no case because, according to the flawed police report filed by Cervantes - indicated that she had voluntarily surrendered the dog.

* When she tried to relate the facts to Lt. Napoleon Gonzalez, he basically said he didn't want to hear her "rant" and ignored her and hung up the telephone on her.

* A Det. (Sergio?) Perez told her that the alleged owner of the dog – Samantha Nathaly Vargas – had told him that she no longer had the dog and that she had lost her when she was allegedly involved in a phony drive-by shooting incident. Vargas claimed that she and her family had run for their lives amidst gunfire to escape and abandoned Dobie. She claimed that when she returned two days later the dog was gone.

* On July 14, 2022, a property hearing was held before Municipal Judge Rigoberto Flores who awarded Speece ownership of Dobie. Vargas defaulted by not showing up.

* On July 19, Speece was getting ready to address the Brownsville City Commission about the situation and was deterred by Commander James Paschal who promised to take a personal interest and would help her. In the end, he discouraged her, and eventually changed his tune and did nothing. 

 * On July 28, Paschall called Speece and Animal Control Supervisor Robert Dippong who said Asst. City Attorney Jennifer Avendaño told him that the city's legal definition on the municipal code are not enforceable. Speece later found out that Paschall had contacted Vargas on the case and told her she needed to be present for the small-claims hearing. When she attempted to represent herself in a justice of the peace court, she was told she needed an attorney.

* When Speece attempted to hire the services of local attorneys she found out that no one wanted to take the case and that one she paid $2,500 locally only offered a limited scope representation. Out-of town attorneys wanted $5,000 a day for their services. Many claimed that the city had qualified immunity and were not going to take it.

 Now, with Dobie gone, and the police unwilling to enforce the law correctly, she wants Brownsville residents to be aware that if they expect the police to do the right thing, they are in for a rude awakening. That is why now she vows that she will go before the city commission until something is done. She said she is far from finished trying to find Dobie and reclaim her and says that this is not the last the city will hear from her.

When she spoke to then-At-Large-A commissioner John Cowen, he told her that it was inappropriate for her to talk to him about it and suggested she sue the city despite it having qualified immunity.

"I really expected that the city would have done right by me or any other Brownsville resident," she said. "Right now it is clear that my dog was stolen and that the BPD aided and abetted in the theft because of their ignorance of the law they are supposed to enforce. It breaks my heart not knowing whether Dobie is alive or dead and suffering somewhere without  the love that I had for her and still have for her. I hope she is safe wherever she may be."