SAN ANGELO, TX — A San Angelo police officer was arrested late Sunday night for Driving While Intoxicated after crashing into a parked, unoccupied vehicle in the 3800 block of Millbrook.
When San Angelo police arrived, they reported both vehicles, the one driven by the off-duty police officer and the unoccupied parked car “were associated with the driver.” When the subject of the investigation was identified as a San Angelo police officer who responding officers believed to be intoxicated, the crash investigation was turned over to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The crash happened just after 11:30 p.m., police said.
“Pursuant to the desire for unbiased investigative standards and to maintain transparency, the Texas Department of Public Safety was called to take over the investigation,” police stated.
DPS arrested and booked into jail James Hernandez, 50, for DWI. Police did not indicate there were injuries.
The case opens up more than a DPS DWI investigation. “San Angelo Police Department has opened a formal internal investigation with the Office of Professional Standards,” the department stated.
The photo of the officer was missing from the Tom Green County Sheriff’s Office bookings website and we overlooked the arrest. A concerned reader notified us as well as the local newspaper of the oversight early Tuesday morning. After an inquiry with the police, they furnished the details of the arrest promptly Tuesday afternoon. Hernandez was booked into the county jail at 1:08 a.m. Monday morning and released at 5:28 a.m., 4 hours and 20 minutes later.
Hernandez, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, moved back to San Angelo in 2006 and joined the San Angelo Police Department. In 2015, while serving as a detective, we published this profile on him.
DWI in Texas is a Class B misdemeanor, with a minimum term of confinement of 72 hours if found guilty. The charge is upgraded if the BAC is 0.15 or greater to a Class A misdemeanor. Hernandez was released from jail on a $1,000 bond.
Subscribe to the LIVE! Daily
Required
Comments
Your fired!! At least that's what should happen, he's a cop and should know better. However, if he plays his cards right, and gets CLEAT and LULAC lawyers, he can get deferred adjudication and still carry a badge and gun.
- Log in or register to post comments
PermalinkI have no doubts this officer drinks too much. He had to be inebriated when he matched his shirt and tie for that photograph. Nice hat though.
- Log in or register to post comments
PermalinkNo telling how many people he has arrested for alcohol related offenses. He should be held to a higher tandard, but you and I both know he won't.
- Log in or register to post comments
PermalinkMust have not paid the dues to the club. They get away with quite a bit. Maybe he can police in Midland.
- Log in or register to post comments
PermalinkDeferred is not available for DWI. Yes he is a cop and should know better, if he is guilty, which we should not presume. The rest of the comments here are unworthy of response.
- Log in or register to post comments
PermalinkThere is precedent to prove that DWI can and does sometimes receive deferred adjudication. I personally know a case from a few years ago in which a cop, suspended without pay for almost 2 years after DPS charged him, was reinstated on the force and deferred adj was the sentence. Get the right lawyer and judge and anything is possible.
- Log in or register to post comments
PermalinkTrue Jeff Betty, Deferred is not available for DWI, that's why they came up with Pre-trial diversion for misdemeanor DWI. Same as deferred just different name.
- Log in or register to post comments
PermalinkThank you San Angelo Live for this reporting. If not for you it would have been swept under the rug, no doubt. Everyone else is on the 6:00 pm news or at least picture plastered all over the internet. Thanks again.
- Log in or register to post comments
PermalinkWhat does being a Marine have to do with him drinking and driving? If he was part of any other service you probably would not have bothered to mention it. He got into trouble and will pay for it. End of story.
- Log in or register to post comments
PermalinkWhere are all of the apologists for this guy? Had he been a career shithead with ink from head to toe, we'd all be treated to the slew of grammatically challenged rants about him "being someone's son/father, who just made a mistake".
True, he should be held to a higher standard, but even the most immaculate mosaics contain a few broken pieces. Only when we step back, are we able to appreciate the portrait of a man by viewing the bigger picture.
- Log in or register to post comments
PermalinkPost a comment to this article here: