Trial Date of Former San Angelo Police Chief Pushed Back Again

Vasquez, who was arraigned Jan. 24, 2020, said he’s innocent. His original trial date of Oct. 19, 2020 was pushed back the first time due to Covid-10 to Feb. 16, 2021.

See: Former Police Chief Tim Vasquez Accused of Receiving Bribes Through His Band, Funky Munky

Vasquez’s defense attorney, David Guinn of Guinn and Hurley in Lubbock, said the prosecution’s case appears weak because the police chief did not make sole decisions about to whom $13 million in contracts were awarded. Authority to award these contracts was through two San Angelo City Councils with different elected representatives in 2007 and again in 2015. All Vasquez did was sit on a committee recommending what radio brand to use and vendor to hire, Guinn said.

Guinn’s position is that Vasquez’s after-hours business dealings, where Dailey and Wells Communications, Inc. and its affiliates hired Vasquez’s band, Funky Munky, may not look good, or even be unethical, but does not rise to the level of federal bribery charges.

WATCH: Life After Being Chief of Police for Tim Vasquez.

“I’m not aware of a penal statute that required Vasquez to do that (report the amount the vendor was paying his band to perform),” Guinn said. Besides, he said, “Tim was just one voice in a committee of 12 people recommending Dailey & Wells.”

See: "Vendor 1" in the Former Police Chief Tim Vasquez Indictment was a Prolific Political Donor Elsewhere, Too.

Guinn also pointed out there were two parties to a bribe — the party offering the bribe and the party receiving it. Both sides of the transaction could be guilty of a crime, he said. So far, there is no indictment of the party offering the bribe, Guinn argued.

“We intend to defend this case with everything we have,” Guinn said. “It’s a complicated case.”

See also, Defense: Here's Why Former San Angelo Police Chief Tim Vasquez is "Not Guilty”

Both the prosecution and defense agree the Vasquez trial constitutes a “complex case.” In a court order handed down Monday, March 8, U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix ruled that, “[T]he Court may grant an ‘ends of justice’ continuance at the request of a defendant or defendant's attorney if the Court finds that ‘the ends of justice served by taking such action outweigh the best interest of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial.’” The federal judge noted that, “failure to grant a continuance in this case would deny defendant's counsel the reasonable time necessary for effective preparation.”

The judge ordered the defendant’s pretrial motions and discovery as well as defense and prosecution responses to be concluded by May 28.

The Vasquez trial will then commence on June 8, 2021 at 9 a.m. in the United States District Court, Courtroom C-276, 1205 Texas Avenue, Lubbock. The next scheduled item on the docket is a pretrial session set for June 7, 2021 in Lubbock.

In San Angelo, the police chief is an elected position. Vasquez won a hotly contested race in 2008 but lost his bid for re-election in another election battle to Frank Carter in 2016. Vasquez served as San Angelo’s police chief from 2004 until 2016. In late 2019, Vasquez had hinted to associates he would run again for police chief in the spring of 2020. Right before the candidate filing deadline in early 2020, he was indicted. By the filing deadline, Carter was unopposed having drawn no opponents and the City Council voted to forgo another police chief election.

Timothy Ray Vasquez, 50, was charged in federal court on Jan. 8, 2020 with one count of receipt of a bribe by an agent of an organization receiving federal funds and three counts of honest services mail fraud.