San Angelo’s Trial of the Decade Starts Monday

LUBBOCK, TX — The trial of former San Angelo Police Chief Tim Vasquez gets underway with a pre-trial hearing at 8:30 a.m. Monday morning, March 21. The jury selection and trial commence immediately after the hearing.

Vasquez is facing two federal charges of Receipt of a Bribe and Honest Mail Fraud. The charges stem from his 15 year association with Dailey & Wells Communications, an L3 Harris Radio vendor, that sold the City of San Angelo its public safety radio communications system starting in 2007. 

U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Haag will prosecute the charges that Vasquez used his influence as part of an informal City of San Angelo public safety vendor selection committee to push for hiring Dailey and Wells and buying Harris radio equipment for fire and police radio communications. For that, Haag charges, Vasquez’s band, Funky Munky, was hired by the San Antonio radio vendor over the next 8 years, from 2007 until June 2, 2015, to the tune of $84,000.

In 2015, it was time to upgrade the City of San Angelo public safety radio communications system to P25, a new standard for public safety radio networks. Haag will argue that Vasquez urged the San Angelo City Council at the time to buy the $5.7 million upgrade without it going out to bid. The City used a cooperative exception through the Houston-Galveston Area Council. Six of the seven San Angelo City Council members, including former Mayor Dwain Morrison, are expected to testify that had each known of Vasquez’s business relationship with Dailey and Wells, each of their decisions could have been different on that vote.

Haag will argue that Vasquez’s failure to inform fellow City officials of his off-the-clock business relationship with the vendor violated Texas Local Government Code, the City Employee Policy Manual and the City’s Purchasing Policies and Procedure Manual.

In late 2016, Dailey & Wells contracted 10 future performances by his band Funky Munky for $50,000, or $5,000 per performance.

Vasquez runs into federal trouble because the City of San Angelo has received more than $10,000 in federal benefits during a one-year period during the timeframe of the allegations. The second charge, Honest Mail Fraud, stem from the timing of the payments to Vasquez through Funky Munky, and Vasquez’s alleged use of the U.S. Post Office to hide or conceal his business dealings with the radio vendor.

Vasquez is represented by Lubbock defense attorneys David Guinn and Daniel Hurley. The duo is known to San Angelo as Dan Hurley was the defense counsel during the infamous trials of Ray Zapata and John Young. Both were convicted of charges related to forging the will of the late John Sullivan.

The trial will feature many local politicos, both past and present, and the prosecution is expected to take three to four days presenting the case.

Joe Hyde will be reporting from the courtroom in Lubbock nightly. Summary dispatches will be published for free on San Angelo LIVE! More detailed analysis and insights will be delivered via the Joe Hyde Report, a paid subscription email available for $50 annually. You can subscribe here. 

Monday morning, key defense motions were denied and the jury was seated. Details.